


When

by oviparous



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Anal Sex, Dogs, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Falling In Love, Friendship, M/M, Oral Sex, Romance, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 23:23:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 23,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9041054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oviparous/pseuds/oviparous
Summary: (AU of an AU. My peace offering to everyone whose heart I broke with 'Then'.)The year is 2017. In a world where powered and non-powered individuals live together, Nino is a junior high school teacher in a rural seaside town in Chiba. His empathic powers often hinder his navigation of life--until he meets Ohno. (Story will make more sense if you read the original AU, but can still be read independently of it.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jade_lil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jade_lil/gifts), [spacewhistler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacewhistler/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Then](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8451025) by [oviparous](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oviparous/pseuds/oviparous). 



> AU of an AU, 'Then'. (Warning: The premise of 'Then' involves Nino being a ghost, i.e. he's dead. This is the parallel universe version in which Nino didn't die.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's spring of 2017, school has just started, and Ohno is Nino's new colleague.

“You’ll want to hit that big round button again,” Nino advised, pointing with his mug, “and wait for the flames to appear in that little window thing. It usually happens after a few presses.”

The new art teacher, Ohno, did as he was told, and his face lit up when the hot water started running. He turned to Nino, giving him a smile.

“Thank you.” Ohno grabbed the sponge and squeezed some dishwashing detergent on it before proceeding to wash his own mug.

“The heater’s a bit old; we keep asking the welfare committee to do something about it,” Nino dropped his voice, “but they insist there’s no budget for that.”

Ohno chuckled. “It was the same at my old school, only our problem was the microwave. It always stopped at the one-minute mark.”

Ohno finished up with his mug, and Nino opened a drawer to hand him a fresh towel, nodding to the ratty one hanging above the sink that had the faded words 'For Dishes' written on it.

“No one’s ever witnessed Welfare actually changing that. It’s always safer to bring your own; that’s what some of the other teachers do. But I just use these.” Nino held out the towel. “They’re meant for the desks, but definitely get washed more often.”

“Got it.”

“When you’re done with it you can just put it on top of this table here, and sooner or later there’ll be someone who uses it for something they’ve spilt. The vice-principal always has accidents with creamer when he spoons it into his cup,” muttered Nino, quirking a smile. “He can’t gauge distance very well.”

Ohno laughed. “Okay.” He gave Nino a smile wider than before. “Thank you, Ninomiya-sensei.”

Nino stilled as Ohno’s gratitude reached him. It was _mighty_ , and it caught Nino off-guard.

People like Ohno always surprised Nino. They were often these soft-spoken, mild-mannered, _I-mind-my-own-business_ people on the surface, but on the inside they were emotional heavyweights.

As they stood there in the tiny pantry, Ohno felt to Nino like a clear day in winter—one of those days when it was cold outside, but the skies were the bluest blue and the sun was kissing your cheeks, warming them up; and you were bundled up in the toastiest of your winter clothing with a cup of hot cocoa in your hands.

Ohno felt lovely.

Nino couldn’t help but read people with his empathy. He’d given up trying to control it; instead, he’d managed to condition himself to ignore its effects. It’d been more than twenty years since he realised he had powers. It’d been easier, somewhat, with his sister having them too, but hers didn’t involve knowing how other people felt.

And now Nino was picking up on how Ohno felt about him.

The gratitude was mixed with a certain shyness, a hope for friendship, and—Nino willed his ears to stop from turning red as the emotions shifted—one of the simpler forms of attraction.

Ohno was finding him cute.

Nino stamped down on his awful quasi-mind-reading and took the dishcloth out of Ohno’s hands. “I’ll need this for mine,” said Nino, dancing his own unwashed mug in front of Ohno, rattling the spoon against the porcelain.

“Sure. Thanks for telling me about the water heater,” said Ohno as he made a move to head back to the teachers’ space.

“Anytime.” Nino grinned, and when Ohno smiled at him again, Nino knew they were going to have several encounters similar to this one.

He couldn’t wait.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tale of Nino discovering he was a Prior.

When Nino’s empathic powers first emerged, he woke up in the mornings feeling his sister’s apprehension through the walls, sensing first her immense determination to punish anyone who dared call her a freak of nature, then the ennui of having to harbour a secret.

Except he didn’t yet know the names or origins of these feelings—he was nine, and he’d thought he was dying from some kind of disease because the feelings would accumulate in his chest, and he’d always been told he hadn’t been the healthiest baby.

But Nino hated to draw attention to himself. He decided to wait and see if his symptoms got worse, and tell his parents only when things spiralled beyond his control.

He’d head to breakfast and get overwhelmed by the cacophony of emotions that all six of his family members were experiencing; the discordant mess of anxiety and concern, languor and bliss; heaped together and onto him like he was a plate at a dramatic buffet, and his family were gluttonous players.

In the weeks ahead the world seemed sharper, and everyone more threatening. Especially at school—he felt like he was drowning in attitudes and sentiments, but because he didn’t want to worry his mother by being one of those kids that stayed at home, he went to school anyway.

His gumption stemmed from it being not _all_ bad. He’d recorded positive emotions around him as well—the kindness of a classmate, the affection of a teacher, the bashful joy of one particular first-grader whenever Nino took her hand as they crossed the streets in their walking groups.

Still, a lot of the good was marred by the sheer quantity of it all.

He tried shutting the feelings out by drawing into himself, but people eventually noticed, and he got picked on and teased. It further confused him, because it opened up new windows to malevolence and discontent, and Nino had never experienced those so strongly before.

For all his waking hours he’d wonder who he was, because he didn’t know which were his own feelings anymore. By the time he told his mother, tearfully, that he thought he was suffering from some health complication, three months had passed; he’d been embossed with the emotions that would form the foundations of his empathic library.

Looking back, Nino realised that he hadn’t actually lost his feelings. It was just that he’d been experiencing only one.

He’d been terrified.

It took days for him to communicate to his mother what exactly was going on. He still didn’t have the vocabulary to pinpoint his discomfiture, but his mother eventually figured out that the vague description of ‘feeling a lot of things at once’ wasn’t vague at all; she sat him down and asked if he could tell her how she was feeling at that very moment, and when Nino was able to interpret her worry and love, she knew.

Nino was a Prior.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nino likes his new colleagues.

When Nino saw the name ‘Ohno Satoshi’ listed underneath his on the page, he couldn’t hide his smile.

They were going to serve on the educational affairs committee together that year. It was the only thing that provided Nino a chance to cross paths with Ohno outside of the pantry; Ohno was the assistant homeroom teacher for a third grade class while Nino was a first grade homeroom teacher. Not being in the same grade meant a lot less interaction, especially since first and third grade teachers sat at opposite ends of the office.

But being on the educational affairs committee meant they’d have to plan formal school functions together, Nino thought in glee, before he realised it was the first time he was actually _excited_ about those things.

It wasn’t exactly a crush. Nino knew what a crush felt like, and this wasn’t one. Not yet, maybe. He just liked Ohno very much—as a person—and by the looks of it, so did most of the staff.

Ohno made friends easily, Nino observed. He was genuinely friendly when people went up to him for a chat, as several faculty members did, mainly because Ohno was the new guy and they were a very welcoming school.

Ohno wasn’t the only one who was new. There were nine other additions to the staff of Kujukuri Junior High that year, and Nino also found himself rather fond of the new music teacher, Sakurai.

Unlike Ohno, who was a contract teacher, Sakurai had come to replace Joshima-sensei, who’d been transferred to another school in a neighbouring ward. Sakurai was in Nino’s grade and was instantly popular in the cool-kid-on-the-block kind of way. Although he was new at Kujukuri, some of the staff had worked with him in his previous school, so he wasn’t a complete stranger. He was responsible, smart, and according to a senior teacher, did his job really well.

Nino liked him because he was one of the fairest, most level-headed people he’d ever met. And Nino wasn’t just making all this up. Sakurai had practically _radiated_ impartiality during a grade meeting where they had to decide which classes the weaker kids should go to.

Nino looked at the list of committees again, and was delighted to find Sakurai, Ohno and himself grouped together in an independent group labelled _Traffic_.

“Ninomiya-sensei, do you have a moment?”

Nino looked up to see Sakurai smiling at him from the end of his row of desks. Ohno was walking up to his aisle as well.

“What’s up?” asked Nino, swivelling in his chair to face them.

“We were joking about having a department meeting over lunch,” Sakurai gestured between himself and Ohno, and Nino started to laugh because it was true, Sakurai and Ohno _did_ make up the entire Arts Department, “but Ohno-sensei suggested making it a teachers-in-charge-of-traffic lunch—you don’t happen to already have plans, do you?”

“Nope,” said Nino, grinning and getting out of his chair.

It was going to be a great year.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nino thinks about a lot of things as he takes a walk with his dog in the park. He also meets Ohno, and they have a chat.

Living in 2017 meant things like being a Prior and being gay were issues that people talked about and even fought for—Nino happened to be both.

In retrospect, Nino realised he was pretty lucky. He’d grown up in an era when books and movies existed as a voice for the minority, often providing social commentary, despite them being largely fiction (he’d watched _X-Men_ ; the powers that they had were a lot cooler, though their problems seemed a lot more serious).

Society _was_ moving forward, yet Nino still found it challenging to be entirely comfortable in his own skin.

There were lots of people who didn’t like Priors because of what they could do. Nino got that—he’d been guilty of abusing his powers himself. When you were someone who could interpret emotions, it was all too easy to meddle with human interactions. Having empathy and being empathetic were two different things—Nino learnt this the hard way, when he inadvertently caused the breakdown of some of his own relationships.

Then there was the gay thing. In many ways, being gay was similar to being a Prior. It wasn’t that they were parts of Nino that he hid on purpose. It was that they had to be hidden because of the way people reacted to them, which often led to a whole lot of trouble.

Nino didn’t like trouble. That was why even though he was tempted to join the mentor-mentee programme that the folks at the Prior-Sapiens Friendship Association launched years ago, he couldn’t bring himself to.

Nino was loathe to admit it because it seemed selfish and paranoid, but he knew that signing up meant he had to register somewhere in black-and-white as a Prior, and he didn’t like that. They were in the information age. There were people out there who wanted to steal personal particulars, exploiting them for their own benefit.

Nino just didn’t want anyone who didn’t have to know that he was a Prior, know he was a Prior.

This was where the road forked—being Prior and being gay were both very personal to Nino, but he couldn’t be completely private about being gay, because Nino still craved having someone to love, and be loved. Unfortunately for Nino, his powers were the sort that ran in the background, the sort that he couldn’t completely shut down unless he was sleeping or dead, and he would never fail to notice when his lovers had a change of heart. Funnily enough, they always did. Nino wondered if it was his fault, if he just had really bad taste in men, or were people just like that? 

That was probably the reason why Nino got a dog. Captain was a mutt he’d found as an abandoned puppy, and though there were two other dogs in that dingy crate tucked into a corner of that underpass, Nino knew which one was going to be his. He couldn’t really put a finger as to why—his powers didn’t extend to reading animals—but Captain had something that the other dogs didn’t. Nino liked to imagine it was a human soul. Human _like_ , at least.

“Nino?”

Nino stopped, and he broke out into a smile when he saw Ohno approach. His smile then turned into a toothy grin when he realised Ohno had called him ‘Nino’—something he’d asked both Ohno and Sho to do the other day, when they went out for lunch together.

Nino’s suggestion had prompted them to give each other nicknames, and Ohno officially became ‘Oh-chan’; Sho rejected the portmanteau of ‘Sakusho’ and ended up settling for ‘Sho-chan’, complaining throughout how it wasn’t really a nickname per se. Ohno had consoled him, saying Sho could call him 'Satoshi-kun' if it made him less lonely, and frankly Nino was a little envious they got to be on first-name basis whereas he was just plain 'Nino'.

 _Baby steps, baby steps,_ Nino had told himself, _don't scare off your friends with your need for attachment._

“Morning, Oh-chan.”

“Morning! I thought it was you,” said Ohno cheerfully as Captain wagged his tail and started sniffing Ohno curiously. “I didn’t know you had a dog.”

Nino laughed, tugging on Captain’s leash to have him behave. “I’ve only known you four days.”

“You walk it every morning?”

“Almost, yeah. We’re lucky to live near such a pretty park, aren’t we, Captain?”

“It’s a boy?”

“Yup.”

“Hey, Captain.” Ohno squatted on his haunches and started scratching Captain behind the ears.

Nino took in Ohno’s tracksuit and trainers. “Morning jog?”

“Yeah, and exploring the area. I’m still not very familiar with Kujukuri.” Ohno stood up. “Want to walk together?”

“Sure,” replied Nino, more than happy to do so. “As long as we’re not late for work.”

Ohno laughed. “Five minutes, then.”

“It doesn’t have to be that short!”

Ohno started laughing again, and there it was: Ohno’s special liking for Nino, radiating off him and onto Nino’s senses. It wasn’t anything romantic or sexual, but it was attraction nonetheless.

Ohno just found him really, really cute. Like, cuter than Captain cute, and to Nino that was something, because Nino thought Captain was _hella_ cute.

It’d been a long time since someone felt this way about Nino, and while it was indeed quite embarrassing to be thought of as _cute_ , it was one of the more welcome affections in Nino’s list of favourite sentiments.

Nino thought Ohno was cute, too. He had this funny mouth which he arranged a thousand different ways according to his temper, and Nino particularly enjoyed seeing him discover the humour in conversations—sometimes he tucked his upper lip into his lower one to form a half-assed pout, like he was actually trying _not_ to smile; sometimes one of his cheeks would lift before he broke out into a laugh; sometimes his nose would wrinkle and his eyes would scrunch as he cackled.

Ohno Satoshi was _fucking adorable_.

“Oh, that’s pretty,” said Ohno as they walked closer to the pond. He was pointing to the gazebo overlooking the water. “Do you mind if we go there for a bit?”

Nino started guiding Captain towards the gazebo.

“Oh-chan, you’re from Niigata, right?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“What brought you to Chiba?”

“School,” Ohno said simply. “I went to university at Chibadai, then after graduation I decided to find work here.”

“I see.” Nino tried to do the maths. “So you’ve been a contract teacher for, what, ten years?”

“Oh, no. I taught at a prep school in Kashiwa until it suddenly closed down a couple years ago. Luckily enough the city was looking for substitute teachers, so I started teaching at an elementary school. Then, when I saw that Kujukuri was hiring, I applied. I’ve always wanted to live close to the sea again.”

Nino fixed Captain’s leash onto one of the gazebo’s posts before leaning backwards against the wooden rail to resume his chat with Ohno.

“Why not go back to Niigata, then?”

“My parents said they’ll only take me back after I turn forty,” said Ohno, laughing. “I wasn’t the most independent kid. They figured it’d take twenty-five years for me to learn how to be a proper adult. To be fair, they admitted it was mostly their fault.”

Nino burst into giggles. He could imagine Ohno being lectured by his parents as they helped him pack his things for university.

“You?” It was Ohno who was asking this time. “No plans to go back to Fukushima?”

Nino shook his head. “I’m employed by the prefectural government, remember?”

“Right, right.” Ohno nodded, remembering. “You’d have to take the Fukushima civil servant qualification test to do what you’re doing here.”

“Yeah. It’s not worth it, starting from scratch. Besides, my sister has agreed to take over the family business, so I don’t really have to go back right now.”

Ohno’s lips quirked into a smile. “I guess we’ll both be in Chiba for a while, then.”

It took a beat before Ohno’s symphony of relief and innocent joy swept over Nino, and Nino could swear that in that moment time stopped; he felt his face heat up and his heart soar before remembering he really shouldn’t pick up on emotions that involved him because really, false starts were the worst, and how many times had he ruined surprises for himself already?

Nino started untying Captain’s leash, his palms sweaty. “Sorry, I really should get going. Still have to feed this guy.”

“I’ll see you at school, then.”

“Yeah. Let’s go, Captain.”

They waved their goodbyes and headed for opposite ends of the park, and as Nino hurried on his way home, he found himself thrilled yet ridiculously apprehensive.

Ohno was starting to fall in love with him, and Nino wasn’t sure how he felt about it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nino and Aiba hang out one Friday night and have a heart-to-heart.

There was only one other Prior in Nino’s life apart from his sister that he was close to, and if Nino wanted to be really honest, he’d only met Aiba Masaki because he’d wanted to have sex with him.

Or, more accurately, Nino had wanted to have sex with Aiba’s picture on 9monsters; while it hadn’t lied, Nino quickly found out he and Aiba were hilariously incompatible when it came to bedroom kinks, so they gave up trying to fuck and decided to become friends instead.

(It’s not to say that their relationship had stayed completely platonic all these years—one night they’d been incredibly horny and decided to conduct an experiment to prove whether they truly had no chances with each other. The short version of the story was that Aiba ended up slipping in the shower and fracturing his thumb. Nino took him to the ER where they had to lie to the doctor about what really happened, and they never tried to be anything more than friends after that, because tempting fate was stupid—they were _lucky_ it had been a _thumb_.)

Nino had found out Aiba was a Prior five minutes into their first meeting; Aiba was usually very upfront about it because he was courageous that way, and also because his job revolved around his powers—it was one of the rare cases where it made things less weird when you said you were a Prior.

Aiba was, simply put, a ghostbuster.

Nino hadn’t even known such an occupation existed out of fiction, but when he raised this, Aiba just laughed and said: “Where do you think the movies got the idea from?”

By the time it was 2017, counting from the day Nino fortuitously laid his eyes on that JPEG of Aiba, they’d known each other for five years.

“Which one is it?” said Aiba, craning his neck to look at the teachers leaving the building, as Nino got into Aiba's car that evening outside the school.

“Stop that,” said Nino sharply as he shifted his backpack into his lap. “What are you doing?”

“When you take the initiative to plan our gatherings, you’re usually having guy trouble. Which one of your co-workers are you crushing on now?” Aiba paused before reaching across Nino to tap the passenger-side window. “Is it that one? He’s super hot, what the fuck—why does your school keep employing men who look like idols?”

Nino sighed and wound down the window as Sho noticed them. He started waving and walking over.

“Thanks for your hard work today, Sho-chan,” Nino said.

“I didn’t do anything except direct traffic.” Sho chuckled. “You guys in educational affairs did most of the work for the opening ceremony. Thanks for _your_ hard work, Nino.”

Nino laughed. “I’ll see you on Monday, Sho-chan. Have a nice weekend.”

“Have a nice weekend!” Aiba echoed, and Nino gave Sho a tired smile before jerking a thumb towards Aiba.

“First friend I made in Chiba.”

“Hi,” Sho greeted. “I’m Sakurai.”

“I’m Aiba.” Aiba angled his head, then flashed Sho a grin. “I know what it looks like, but Nino-chan and I aren’t dating.”

“ _Ignore him_ ,” Nino immediately said to Sho, but Sho was already laughing.

“I have a friend to meet too. Catch you later, Nino. Nice to meet you, Aiba-san!”

“Nice to meet you!” Aiba sang before Nino hit the button to send the window back up.

Aiba put the car into drive, and Nino waited for a second before thwacking the back of Aiba’s head.

“Ow! Nino!”

“‘We aren’t dating’? I’m not out to my co-workers, you idiot.”

“It was funny! People make jokes like that now! Don’t you watch TV?” Aiba turned right at the end of the road instead of left; they were going to the supermarket to grab food and alcohol before heading to Nino’s place to play Biohazard.

“I approve, though. Your Sho-chan seems nice. And did I mention I think he’s hot? He is very hot.”

“It’s not him,” Nino said, sliding down the seat and rubbing his face. “God, Aiba-kun. Why am I friends with you again?”

“…So it _is_ guy trouble, huh?” Aiba said with a knowing smile.

“I guess.” Nino heaved a sigh. “Fuck. I don’t know what to do.”

There was silence for several moments before Aiba spoke again.

“Nino-chan,” Aiba was sounding lot more gentle now, “what happened?”

Nino fingered the straps of his backpack, wondering where he should start.

“The new art teacher,” Nino finally said. “He’s _perfect_ , and he likes me. There isn’t even any of that I-can’t-tell-the-world-I’m-a-gay-educator baggage, he just _is_.”

“And you’re frustrated because…?”

“I feel like I wasn’t supposed to know,” said Nino. “He projected it on me. God, I hate being a Prior sometimes.”

“He must really like you then, for his emotions to travel. Oh my god, Nino!” Aiba was sounding excited now, and he started thumping Nino’s back, “This is the first time anyone at work has actually liked you back!”

“Shut up,” groaned Nino, swatting Aiba’s arm away. “You’re making it worse.”

“D’you think he’s cool with Priors?”

“Don’t even get me started on that. If he isn’t, I’d be horribly disappointed in him, and if he is, it doesn’t change the fact that I’ll know whatever he’s feeling even before he does. Honestly, I want to throw up just thinking about it.”

“You know, you’re not yourself tonight. The Nino I know would be really cool and rational about this.”

“Oh really? What would the Nino you know say?”

“He’d say it’s all right, powers greater than his are at work in the universe, things’ll fall into place somehow…” Aiba’s words died on his lips as he caught sight of Nino’s stony expression. “So this guy is different?”

“I don’t know, Aiba-kun. I don’t know if he really is, or it’s just me wanting him to be.”

“For what it’s worth, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you quite this serious.”

Nino kept quiet. He knew Aiba was right. Why was Ohno affecting him so much? He barely knew the guy.

Nino leant back against the seat; replaying in his mind the good and the bad of every romance he’s had, remembering the crushing disappointment of fading affection; openly challenging that voice in his head which whispered _Ohno was special_.

They entered the parking lot of the supermarket, and Nino unbuckled his seatbelt before dumping his head on the dashboard. Aiba squeaked in alarm.

“Whoa, Nino. You’re scaring me.”

Nino took several moments to compose himself before deciding if there was anyone he could trust with his feelings, it was Aiba. He didn’t look the part, but Aiba was magical, even for a Prior; his consideration for people was a rare gift.

“I’m just so tired, Aiba-kun. I’ve had enough. I want to love someone on my own terms, not the terms of my powers. I don’t want to love just because I want to match up to how I’m loved. I don’t want to stop loving someone just because they stop loving me.” Nino turned his neck so he was looking at Aiba, though he still had his forehead pressed to the dashboard.

“I’m tired of hoping for a love that will last.”

Aiba patted Nino’s head before holding out his arms. “Hug?”

“I appreciate the sentiment, but not in the parking lot of Landrome, no.”

Aiba put down his arms and settled for rubbing Nino’s back. “If wanting a love that will last is that important to you, you should hold on to it, you know?”

“Sound advice, but _you_ don't have powers you can’t switch off.”

“Technically I _do_ , but they’re only useful in exorcisms.”

Nino had to laugh.

“Listen, Nino-chan. I’ve been meeting a lot of Priors through the mentor-mentee programme, and I’ve realised that things are just a tiny bit more complicated with our kind. Just a tiny bit. It’s not as defeating or out of this world as we think it is. We just need to find our way around things, work with what we have. You’re not alone, you know. There’s a whole community of empaths out there struggling with the same things you do.”

Nino knew he’d made the right choice speaking to Aiba about this. He was feeling better, even if it was just a little bit. He straightened in his seat and swivelled his head to scan the parking lot. It was mostly empty.

Nino faced Aiba. “Do you still have that hug?”

“Sorry,” Aiba bowed, wiping his face clean of his grin, “your coupon’s expired.”

“Dammit!” Nino pretended to hold a coupon up to his face to study it. “You sure?”

“Aw, Nino-chan.” Aiba pulled Nino into a one-armed hug and ruffled his hair. “You could heal the world with your cute, I swear.”

Nino’s voice came muffled against the fabric of Aiba’s sweatshirt.

“I’m not that ambitious. Just let me fall in love the normal way, please and thank you Universe.”

“What if you’re destined to have an epic, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love? What if your art teacher guy is _The One_?”

Nino gave a short, derisive laugh and wriggled out of Aiba’s embrace.

“Then he’d better prove it to me,” said Nino, before he got out of the car.

Magical though he was, sometimes Aiba said the silliest things.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One morning, in the locker room.

The beginning of term signalled busier schedules for everyone—Nino found himself swamped with planning lessons, creating tests and coaching the baseball team, and he barely had time to think about Ohno as he moved from task to task.

There was also Captain to worry about: he’d developed a cold and wasn’t his usual happy self. Captain being sick meant Nino didn’t take him out for walks in the morning, but he got to catch up on sleep, which was great—although it also meant Nino didn’t get to meet Ohno outside of work.

Three days of breaking routine was enough for Ohno to notice. Upon bumping into Nino in the locker room before their work day started, Ohno said:

“I haven’t seen you in the park lately.”

Nino looked up from doing the buttons on his suit, surprised and pleased that Ohno was concerned.

“Captain has a cold. I’m still monitoring the situation, but if his symptoms haven’t improved by the time I get home I’m taking him to the vet.”

“Dogs get colds?” asked Ohno in wonder.

“Yes. It’s not contagious to humans, though. You don’t have to worry about coming near me.”

Ohno laughed softly, and in the next moment Nino was reeling in Ohno’s amusement; flirtatious and merry as it flitted across Nino’s sanity; and it came with a spark of hesitation that Ohno resolutely extinguished as he came to stand behind Nino.

“I’m not worried about anything,” murmured Ohno, “and just so you know, your tie is out at the back.”

Before Nino could say he could fix it himself, he felt Ohno’s fingertips brushing the nape of his neck, tucking the tie back under his collar; Nino could feel Ohno’s boyish glee and nervous excitement, and it made Nino’s blood rush to his face.

Ohno Satoshi was a criminal. That move was slick and very, very underhand.

“Thank you,” Nino said when Ohno was finished, trying to keep his voice level (and it was taking _work_ ), “I can now face the blackboard without fear of the kids criticising my abilities to groom myself.”

“You groom yourself fine, Nino.” Ohno laughed. “I’ll see you outside.”

As he watched Ohno leave the room, Nino blinked, marvelling at how Ohno had managed to temper the entire exchange with his poise and hidden assertiveness. It made Nino hopelessly curious: what was Ohno going to do next?


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A visit to the vet.

Nino stopped short when he stepped into the vet’s office and found out Matsumoto-sensei had been replaced by a younger, slimmer version of himself.

“Good evening. Overdosed on the youth serum much?” joked Nino as he led a forlorn-looking Captain into the room.

The man took a while to get the joke, then he cracked up.

“Matsumoto-sensei is on a break,” the nurse standing by the examination table piped up, gesturing to the man. “Jun-sensei is filling in for him during the interim.”

“‘Jun-sensei’?” echoed Nino. “You guys sure run a friendly organisation.”

The vet laughed again. “When your family members are either doctors, therapists or teachers, people start to call you by your first name to make sure they’ve got the right person. I’m Matsumoto Jun, nice to meet you.”

Nino gave a lopsided grin. “I’m Ninomiya, but I think you knew that already,” said Nino, pointing to the file that was lying open on top of the drawers by the examination table. Nino picked Captain up and placed him on the table in front of the vet.

“Well, Jun-sensei, please tell me Captain has nothing more than a cold. He had a really bad case of kennel cough when he was a puppy—after that experience I haven’t been very confident in treating him myself.”

Jun started examining Captain, asking Nino about how he had cared for Captain since the symptoms emerged.

Jun’s demeanour was remarkably similar to his father’s. They spoke to animals the same way and handled them with the same ease. It made Nino curious about whether they were similar on the inside, and as soon as Nino had that thought, he regretted it.

To Nino, the worst thing about being an empath was that it made him privy to emotions he had no business understanding. There were a few ways this happened—the whole business with Ohno was one—and right now, Nino was picking up on Matsumoto Jun’s emotions because hyper-empathy was part of his nature and to heed it was instinct; sometimes Nino found himself reading people before he knew he was doing it.

So now, as he identified the vet’s mood, Nino felt dreadfully intrusive. It wasn’t that Matsumoto Jun was a bad doctor; it was just that he didn’t share his dad’s passion for veterinary medicine. He loved animals, there was no doubt about it, but the contrast between that love and his disenchantment with his job was painfully stark.

Nino was no meddler, but years ago he’d realised that every cliche that came with choosing a teaching career was true—changing lives, inspiring thought and all that jazz—and those cliches embodied values that were important to Nino. Therefore it was hard to be the teacher he was and ignore Jun’s yearning for validation, an emotion that was directed at something far away from the task at hand.

When Captain’s examination was finished, Jun confirmed that he was free from secondary infections, and that it was just a cold nastier than most. He prescribed some medicine for Captain’s nasal irritation, closed his file, and handed it to the nurse.

The consultation was over. Nino got up to leave, deciding to bury his concern for Jun. Reaching out seemed officious; and really, even though Nino had caught some of his innermost feelings, Jun was still a stranger.

“Um, Ninomiya-san? I hope it isn’t impolite to ask, but I couldn’t help but notice you’re a teacher,” Jun gestured in the nurse’s direction, indicating the file where Nino’s particulars were recorded, “and I was wondering—are you the coach of the Kujukuri Junior High baseball team?”

Nino blinked, gathering Captain into his arms. “Oh dear, have we met already? I usually don’t forget faces.”

Jun laughed, shaking his head. “We haven’t exactly met. You had an Ezawa Takashi on your team last year?”

“Taka-chan!” Nino exclaimed, feeling fond. “He was a great shortstop, yes.” Nino blinked, putting the pieces together. “Wait a minute—he’s Matsumoto-sensei’s grandson! He’s related to you as well, isn’t he?”

“He’s my sister’s kid.” Jun grinned. “We’re quite close; I’ve been to most of his games. I must have seen you in the dugout, and in pictures.”

“Wow. I’d say ‘small world’, but Kujukuri is tiny. My principal has this joke about throwing a rock and hitting someone’s uncle. Very apt, in your case.”

“Can’t disagree.” Jun laughed, standing up to show Nino to the door. “It’s been very nice to meet you, Ninomiya-san. Make sure Captain gets lots of fluids, keep his room warm and clean, and don’t let him play with other dogs for the next week or so. You know the drill. If the symptoms worsen, let me know.”

“I will. Thanks.”

The door slid shut behind Nino, and as he took a seat in the waiting room with Captain, he found himself hoping that someday Matsumoto Jun would discover what he was looking for; because he had one of the kindest hearts Nino ever had the good fortune to encounter; and he deserved to be the happiest he could be.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nino gets drunk and finds out some new things about Ohno’s state of mind.

Nino often felt conflicted about actually _using_ his powers. When he concentrated, he could delve into the hearts of whomever he wanted to read, uncover secrets, spot lies, study every feeling like the palpable things he perceived them to be.

But Nino hadn't been raised to use his powers for his own benefit. When his powers stabilised a year or so after they manifested, he’d avoided reading anyone too deeply, learning how to treat their moods like background noise.

After he became a teacher, however, Nino realised he could use his empathy when disciplining infuriatingly naughty students—they were still children, but they were capable of the most complex and devious lies. Nino figured that if it meant he could deal with the root of their misbehaviour, he had no qualms about employing his powers to do so.

On the other end of his ability-spectrum, Nino struggled. It was virtually impossible for him to tune out emotions that were directed _towards_ him. It was almost like any thought anyone had with Nino at the centre translated to a direct message to Nino’s inbox of empathy, and he'd grown up being most afraid of those, because he never could foresee what he’d receive.

Like now.

The first-years just had an orientation camp, and the teachers in Nino’s grade level were all out at dinner together to celebrate its smooth conclusion, and to gear up for the year ahead. There were other teachers present as well, mostly representatives from the special activities committee that helped organise the camp—this included Ohno, who was straddling several committees that year because of his lighter class load.

Nino had not expected Nishiuchi, the homeroom teacher of 1-A, to harbour a crush on him. First of all, he’d never made an effort to present as straight. Second, it’d happened overnight—even though they’d been in the same department for a year.

Nishiuchi had come to sit beside Nino halfway through the dinner, and her newfound affection was _scorching_. Nino tried his best to be as platonically friendly as he could, but he was also very aware of Ohno’s projections, and that frazzled his nerves.

It really didn’t help that Ohno was sitting directly across from him, feeling increasingly confused as Nino let Nishiuchi share his mojito. Nino didn’t want to think about Ohno’s turmoil—it was too layered and complex to analyse after three beers and a couple of highballs—but his priority was not to offend Nishiuchi; she taught Social Studies as well, and was probably the person he’d work closest with throughout the year.

And really, what could Nino do about the indirect kissing? They weren’t twelve, and people around the table had started sharing drinks after Sho had loudly asked for a sip of Higuchi-sensei’s Kahlúa with milk. Nino couldn’t have said no when Nishiuchi asked to try his mojito; it would’ve made things unnecessarily awkward.

It was all Sho’s fault, Nino figured.

“All right, _nijikai_ time,” Maeda-sensei said after all of them finished their drinks. He took out his phone to search for their next party stop.

“Are you going?” asked Nishiuchi, and even in his inebriated haze Nino could sense that she was inappropriately close.

“I think I’m going to call it a night,” answered Nino, standing up and swaying. He put his hand on the table to steady himself, but Nishiuchi had already gripped his arms, laughing as she told him to be careful.

Nino was slammed with a stupefying wave of jealousy, and he somehow managed to retain enough control of his faculties to keep his head from snapping towards Ohno.

“Nino-sensei, not so fast,” said Higuchi-sensei. “Pay your share first.”

“But you're the senpai,” grumbled Nino.

“That’ll be two thousand yen, thank you very much.”

Nino handed Higuchi-sensei the notes just as Maeda-sensei announced they were going to karaoke next, and at this some people cheered and begged for Sho to show off his singing, but Sho just laughed and said his major was piano so they really shouldn’t keep their hopes up.

“Nishiuchi-sensei, you’re leaving too?” someone at the table moaned, which made Nino realise Nishiuchi wasn't going to the after party as well.

“I have an early start tomorrow,” said Nishiuchi, and she cast a shy glance at Nino before looking at the rest of the table, “I’m calling up a driving service to have them take me home in my car—do any of you need a lift?”

Nino waved his phone in the air. “I’m fine. My friend is coming to pick me up.”

It wasn’t an excuse; Aiba had been informed earlier, when Nino swung by home to put down all his camp things. Aiba had been pet-sitting during the time Nino was gone, and because most of Aiba’s jobs were ad hoc, his hours were usually flexible enough to match up with Nino’s schedule.

As he texted Aiba that he was done, Nino didn’t miss Nishiuchi’s disappointment. Neither did he miss Ohno’s celebration.

It made Nino equal parts happy and guilty: he was amazed that Ohno liked him enough to be feeling this way, but it also made him wonder if he was playing with Ohno’s affections by not responding to them outrightly. It felt wrong, somehow.

Nino watched as Sho drunkenly flung an arm across Ohno’s shoulders. “Satoshi-sensei, you coming to karaoke?”

Nino met Ohno’s eyes for what seemed like the first time that night, but Ohno quickly looked away. He was feeling quite shy, Nino realised.

“Yeah.” Ohno gave Sho a brief smile. “Sure. Let’s go.”

And in that moment Nino was honestly tempted to go as well, but he didn’t want to treat Aiba like the help; Aiba was already on his way, and he’d even spent the past three days looking after Nino’s dog. For free. Nino would be a bad friend if he abandoned Aiba just so he could hang out with Ohno.

“Have fun,” said Nino, grinning at Sho and Ohno, rocking unsteadily on his feet. He stumbled into Higuchi-sensei’s way, who righted him before helping him to the parking lot.

Minutes later, when he was safely packed into Aiba’s car by several of his colleagues, Nino closed his eyes and slumped over, bumping his forehead against the dashboard once more.

“Nino, would you _please_ not do that?”

“Aiba-chan,” Nino breathed, “do you think I have a shot?”

“I think you’ve had more than enough shots.”

Nino sat up before angling his head against Aiba’s shoulder.

“Isn’t it ironic that I can read other people’s feelings but not my own?” said Nino, looking up at Aiba’s face.

“I’m not sure I’m following your train of thought, Nino, but for what it’s worth—yes, that is ironic.”

“You are so patient with me. Thank you,” moaned Nino. He then sniffed at Aiba’s T-shirt, taking in the scent of his detergent. “You smell like Super Nanox tonight.” Nino’s eyes widened. “You smell just like me!”

Aiba just sighed. “I should tape all this down and show it to you when you’re sober. Or better yet—I could blackmail you with it.”

“I’m not _that_ drunk,” said Nino shrilly as he clung onto Aiba’s arm.

“God, Nino!” Aiba cried as he righted the steering wheel, bringing the car back from its swerve. “Okay, back to your seat, no more leaning.”

“But I need to talk about this,” Nino whined, “I think he thinks his gaydar is faulty, but it isn’t. I’m just really nice to girls.”

“Uh huh,” said Aiba, his manner conciliatory at first, but there came a pause, and Nino could hear the frown in Aiba's voice as he asked:

“Wait, whose gaydar? What girls?”

“Oh-chan. Oh-chan’s gaydar. And the 1-A homeroom teacher.”

“So that translates to: Oh-chan thinks his gaydar is faulty because you were really nice to a girl from work?”

“Yes.” Nino was relieved. Aiba was his _best_ friend. He _got_ Nino. “He was _leaking_ feelings tonight, Aiba-chan. He had _all the feelings_ ,” Nino paused dramatically, “and I feel horrid because I know, yet I’m stalling. Should I go tuck his tie under his collar on Monday, you think?”

“Okay, Nino-chan, hang on—I thought we’ve already established that you guys like each other? What is this deja vu?”

Nino leant into his seat and stared out the window at the darkness. Suddenly something clicked, and in that moment of clarity Nino was able to put a name to what Ohno had been feeling all evening. It’d been the undercurrent of all the confusion and relief and shyness, and Nino wasn’t going to lie—it scared him as much as it thrilled him.

“Something’s different now, Aiba-chan,” said Nino softly.

Aiba stopped at a light and turned to look at Nino. “And that is?”

“He’s not just attracted to me.” Nino returned Aiba’s gaze. “He _wants_ me, and he’s terrified about it.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nino thinks very seriously about how he feels about Ohno.

Nino roused to the morning quite hungover, and as he sorted out his jumbled thoughts, the memories of the previous night took shape, making him jolt awake in alarming dread. He cradled his head as it ached from the sudden motion, but he was more aware of the pain that was in his heart. It was a pain that belonged to someone else; it was an impression, a trace of something that Ohno had left behind.

Nino had hurt Ohno, and at this point in time, there wasn’t anything Nino could do to remedy it.

Nino liked Ohno. He liked Ohno very much. Nino was comfortable admitting that. Nino liked how Ohno valued friendship, how sentimental he was, how well he listened, how he just had this gentle air about him. They’d only known each other two months, but Nino had a fair grasp of the basics—where Ohno was from, how many family members he had, what club activity he’d been in as a student, his love of food.

Everything about Ohno was great; Nino could see that. But there were several things that made pursuing a relationship with Ohno complicated and daunting—first of all (and probably the biggest one), they were gay and in the teaching profession. 

On the surface, it seemed fine—neither would they be flouting any rules in their employment contract, nor was the system intolerant of same-sex relationships. However, there were no laws to protect them. They could be fired, or even pressured by the Board of Education or the parent-teacher association to resign from their jobs. It wasn’t unheard of.

Nino had been very careful to separate his personal life from work, and even though he was out on certain corners of the Internet, he made sure he never showed his entire face in his profile pictures or gave his real name. He’d never imagined dating anyone at work before; sure, he’d been attracted to a colleague or five, but those were half-hearted—most of the guys he crushed on were straight.

Then there were his powers. They were the other thing that made dating such a pain, and Nino had learnt his lesson—after three failed relationships, he wasn’t planning to be with anyone who couldn’t accept the Prior part of himself.

His first boyfriend, a law student he met in university, had known he was a Prior. He’d been accepting and wonderful at first, but he broke up with Nino claiming Nino ‘smothered’ him with his tendency to predict their interactions. Nino hadn’t even known he was doing it; he didn’t see it as being controlling, he’d thought he was being considerate.

Nino attributed the breakdown of that relationship to inexperience, and decided to keep his Prior identity under wraps for everything else that came along. Through most of his early twenties he met quite a few men, Aiba included; some of whom he only slept with; two he seriously dated. Those hadn’t ended well. Nino had always thought he was a very forbearing person when it came to his partners, but he soon found that he couldn’t trust guys who told him they loved him but actually didn’t, and it was torture to pretend he didn’t know their lies.

Ohno was different by sheer virtue of the fact that Nino himself had changed. It’d been two years since he stopped trying to meet new people; Nino found that, at 29, he had a new set of expectations—expectations that Ohno seemed to meet, with his quiet eagerness to reach out to Nino.

That said, even if Ohno turned out to be that perfect person who could accept Nino as Nino, and didn’t mind that Nino could basically decode his heart, it didn’t take away Nino’s massive insecurities about love—especially now that he knew how Ohno felt about him. Nino wasn’t sure he could meet the intensity of Ohno’s affection, or love him back the same way.

Nino sighed, covering his eyes with his hand as he fell back on the pillows once more, wishing he had a plan.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nino finds Ohno in the art room one evening.

“Ninomiya-sensei!”

It was pretty dark out, and Nino squinted to see who the figure waving to him was, but he couldn’t make out the person’s face with the length of the baseball field between them.

“Who’s that?” voiced Nino, prompting Kiritani, the manager of the baseball team, to answer:

“It’s Sakurai-sensei. I think he’s asking you to go over.”

Nino quickly got up from the bench and jogged across the field to meet Sho.

“Sorry to interrupt your practice. I wasn’t sure if I should cross the field with the kids throwing balls around,” said Sho.

“Oh, no. What’s up?”

Sho held a bunch of keys up to Nino, and Nino recognised them as the ones to the admin building.

“Usually I stay the latest, but I have to attend a meeting at Ooami Junior High today and there are still a couple of teachers in there,” Sho gestured to the lighted windows of the teachers’ space, “You’re the only one who leaves the school later than I do, so I was wondering if you could help. I know you usually don’t return to the office after practice, so really if it’s inconvenient I’ll ask someone else; but if you could do it, that’d be great, since I don’t really know the other teachers.”

“Of course I’ll do it,” said Nino immediately, putting his hand out to receive the keys. “It’s just the lock-up, right? Do I need to walk the halls?”

“I did a quick patrol of the exits, but I would really appreciate it if you gave the corridors one more look before you leave, just in case,” said Sho, sounding very apologetic.

“Sure.” Nino knew the routine; he’d helped lock up the school more times than he could count.

“Thanks, Nino,” Sho clapped Nino’s shoulder, looking very relieved, “I’ll buy you dinner soon.”

Nino grinned. “I’ll take your word for it.”

And that was how Nino found himself strolling through the darkened hallways of the school, inspecting the toilets and the stairwells for stray students. The last of his coworkers had cleared the teachers’ space, and there was only the other block with the science labs and special rooms left to check.

Nino decided to work his way down from the top floor, and when he climbed the last step he was surprised to see the lights in the art room still on.

His first thought was that the art club had forgotten to switch off the lights after meeting for their after-school activities, and he was going to have to speak to Ohno the next morning about it since he was the teacher-in-charge. Ohno was the type that left school on the dot; it was always difficult to catch him after school was out. Nino would have to grab him before the morning meeting or during lunch, which was just as well, because God knew Nino needed an excuse to speak to Ohno—

“Oh!” Nino cried out, jumping, as he slid open the doors to the oddest sight: it looked like Ohno was lying on the floor, attempting to drown himself in a white substance that was contained in a cardboard box around his head.

“Oh-chan?” Nino called out, heart pounding. “What's going on?”

Upon closer inspection Nino realised Ohno wasn’t trying to kill himself; there was a long plastic tube sticking out of the box, probably for him to breathe.

Ohno was flapping his hands, trying to tell Nino something.

“You’re fine, right?” Nino asked to confirm.

Ohno gave him a thumbs up.

“I’m just going to wait here until you’re done; I’m locking up today.”

Ohno offered him another thumbs up.

Several minutes later a timer rang, and Nino watched in fascination as Ohno put his hands up to the surface of the substance to check if it was hard enough before lifting the cardboard off his face.

Nino exploded into a bout of hard giggles when Ohno turned to him with an open-mouthed smile that showed off all his teeth and gave a long, drawn out “ _Ahhhh_ ,” like he was relishing what had been the best minutes of his life.

Ohno grabbed a couple of tissues and removed something from his nostrils—Nino figured they were nose plugs of some sort—and shifted onto his knees, reaching for the finished product.

“Look,” said Ohno, holding out the object to Nino with one hand as he removed his headband. “I cast my face in plaster.”

Nino took the cast and stared at it in amazement. “I’m sorry, but this version of you looks _really_ dumb.”

They laughed so hard that they started rolling on the floor, and Nino was wiping tears from his eyes when Ohno said:

“Do you want to cast your face?”

“ _No_ ,” Nino refused immediately, “it looks like you had to do that ninja thing where they breathe underwater through a pipe.”

“I did.” Ohno laughed. “Come on, be a sport; it’d just take thirty minutes.”

“ _Thirty_ minutes! It’s eight o’clock!”

“Don’t you want to find out whose face looks dumber?”

“…I have a dog to get home to.”

“That’s not fair! You don’t get to play the dog card with someone who doesn’t have a dog.”

“He just recovered from a cold,” said Nino solemnly.

“That was two weeks ago,” said Ohno, exasperated, hunching forward and splaying his hands on the floor, his face coming very close to Nino’s.

Nino, surprised, automatically jerked back; and in that moment he knew he’d made a mistake, because Ohno’s distress was suddenly suffocating him. It was horrifyingly anticlimactic to their earlier exchange, and it made Nino want to hit himself—just when the awkwardness over that episode with Nishiuchi had blown over; just when Nino didn’t have to scour school happenings for a reason to talk to Ohno at work; just when they were being all natural and fun with each other, Nino had to screw things up.

He had to do something to fix this.

“No more arts and crafts tonight, Oh-chan. I’m starving,” Nino found himself saying as he got to his feet. “Come on. Let’s go eat.”

Ohno stared at him; and Nino tried to keep his breathing even as Ohno’s emotions descended; all hope and confusion, fiercely raging.

“What? Are you busy tonight?” Nino probed.

“Well, I _was_ going home to paint my cast…”

Nino laughed. “Well, sorry to make you choose, but it’s either me or that thing,” Nino pointed to Ohno’s plaster face, “which one do you want?”

It took two beats for Nino to hear himself, but all Ohno did was to give him an amused smile and say:

“You.”

Nino’s heart fluttered. He was being a horrible tease, but he swore to himself it wasn't on purpose.

Nino summoned up a grin, trying not to give away his embarrassment. “I still have to check the lower floors,” said Nino, making for the door, “but I’ll meet you at the staff entrance in, say, ten minutes?”

Ohno nodded, sweeping the art paraphernalia closer to him so he could gather them up. “I’ll see you there,” he said, and Nino hurried away, wondering if this was the right thing to do, and if it counted as leading Ohno on, despite Nino truly having feelings for him.

Except the closer they got, the more Nino thought those feelings weren’t enough.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nino spends some time with Sho in the music room.

All of a sudden it was June—the teaching interns had come and gone, demonstration lessons fretted over and conducted, and the first years were almost done with their transit into junior high, finally getting used to their new subjects and classmates.

“It’s my birthday this weekend. I think I’m going to buy a car,” announced Nino to Sho as he strolled into the music room one Thursday after lunch.

“You rich brat,” Sho responded while writing addresses onto envelopes, using the top of the grand piano as a desk. “You don’t even drive that much.”

“Which is why I’m thinking of downsizing. A friend of mine just had another baby and is looking for a second-hand ride that’s large enough for his family, so I was thinking of selling my car to him. I don’t need an SUV. I think I’d like one of the new safety-driver cars—you know, the types that sense danger and brake automatically.”

“Go for it,” said Sho, before looking up from his task, considering Nino. “Nino, you have nothing to do now, right?”

If he wanted to be completely honest, Nino _had_ stuff to do, but he’d come up to the music room because it was across the hall from the art room, and from that vantage point Nino could spy on Ohno as he taught fifth period. Besides, he told himself, it wasn't like he was _using_ Sho as some sort of red herring; Sho was awesome and Nino really did like to spend time with him.

“I’m free, yeah,” said Nino.

“Here, could you help me check for discrepancies?” Sho slid a list of schools and a bunch of envelopes to Nino. “Let me know if there are any mistakes, or if there’s something wrong with the format.”

“What’re these?”

“Invitations to our band concert. The baseball team is coming, right?”

“Of course. You perform at our games, we watch your concert; and now that I’m doing this for you, you should buy me another meal.”

Sho snapped his fingers. “About that—I’d like to thank Satoshi-kun for helping my band kids with the props we need for the concert, and I owe you dinner from that night you locked up, plus your birthday is coming up, so I was thinking of meshing all of these together and treating you both at the same time. Are you free Saturday night? I know a place near Togane Station with amazing fish karaage; if you’re cool with it I’ll make a reservation.”

Nino couldn't stop grinning. It was so _Sho_ —proactive and generous and earnest and charming, with an enviable knack for work-life balance.

“Knock yourself out,” said Nino, collecting the unchecked envelopes and moving to a chair that faced the door, just so he could throw sneaky glances towards the art room and see what Ohno was up to.

Ever since that night they went out for ramen together, they’d been meeting regularly outside of work—in the mornings at the park (Captain was back in business), after baseball practice (Ohno had started staying back in school, and it wasn’t purely an excuse to wait for Nino; he really had work to do) and one time even on the weekend, when they’d bumped into each other at the supermarket. Nino attributed it all to them living ridiculously close to each other, but Aiba, when updated with the recent development, had quickly declared it to be fate.

Nino was still feeling weird and inferior about not _matching up_ —Ohno’s feelings seemed to be getting larger and larger each day, and Nino felt left behind, somehow. He knew it wasn’t right to leave the entire pursuit to Ohno, it was really cowardly of him not to at least give Ohno an obvious hint—then again, it wasn’t exactly a _pursuit_ per se; everything else aside, Nino actually felt good about the pace, felt that it gave him time to really get to know Ohno as a friend before anything else.

Nino perked in his seat when he heard the students across the hall bursting into laughter, and then Ohno was at the door, about to close it, probably worried he was disturbing Sho’s classes. He spotted Nino and his face lit up—Nino gave a quick wave, which Ohno returned before sliding the door closed, and suddenly Sho was by Nino’s side, peering out of the music room together with Nino.

“I wonder what they’re doing?” asked Sho. “Some classes have been laughing like that all week.”

“Must be the second years doing the four-panel comic. There’s a pretty good punchline at the end of Oh-chan’s,” said Nino, recalling one of the conversations he’d had with Ohno the past week.

Sho looked at him curiously. “Do you vet his lesson plans or something?”

It struck Nino that for all their closeness at work, Sho wasn’t as up to speed as Nino was when it came to Ohno, and while he actually felt quite pleased, a part of him was panicking—he’d overlooked the fact that Sho could very well see what was going on between him and Ohno, and he probably didn't even need to squint that hard.

“Don’t you remember? It came up the other day,” Nino said, and it wasn’t entirely a lie—Sho just hadn’t been around when Ohno mentioned it.

“Really?” Sho scrunched up his face. “I must’ve been occupied with something else.”

Nino stood up and handed the envelopes and list back to Sho. “These are good. I’m going back to the office, I have sixth period.”

“Thanks, Nino. I’ll let you know about dinner on Saturday.”

“I'm looking forward to it,” said Nino, flashing Sho a smile, and although he was quite nervous that Sho would be able to see through him and Ohno when they were all together next, he also knew Sho would never betray them—if there was anyone at work he was willing to come out to, it was Sho.

Nino left the music room feeling grateful, and privileged.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ohno pays a visit to Nino’s apartment on the night of his birthday.

“It’s only nine; come to my place,” Nino said as the server came to switch off their _yakiniku_ stove and give Sho the bill.

“I can’t,” groaned Sho, “I’ve to take the band kids to Higashi Junior High for a combined practice tomorrow.”

“But it’s my birthday! I have Netflix and a shit-ton of games!”

“Don’t whine, Nino,” Ohno cut in, “I’ll go.”

“Okay.” Nino grinned before looking into Ohno’s face, and inadvertently picking up on what was, unmistakably, the suppression of lust.

Nino didn’t know if he should wish for it to fade or to stick around, because right now he was pretty sure he and Ohno had the same thought on their minds, which went something along the lines of: _crap, did we just agree to hang out alone at Nino’s house with all our pent-up sexual tension?_

Nino was tipsy, but only just slightly. He decided that whatever was going to happen at his place was something he had to take in his stride—except he knew he wasn’t equipped for a wild night of sex, and he doubted Ohno was the type of guy who carried lube around with him all the time.

They thanked Sho for dinner before saying goodbye, and Nino pulled on Ohno’s shirt to lead him to the taxi stand in front of the station, both of them bubbling over with laughter, probably to divert their attention from all the awkwardness they were harbouring.

Nino didn’t need to worry for long; Ohno fell asleep the moment he got into the car. Nino even got to admire how cute he was when he slept. It was a blissful 12 minutes.

When they got to his apartment, Nino realised he’d forgotten about one thing—they had Captain for a buffer, and that incredible mutt managed to dissipate their anxiety by bounding into the kitchen to greet them with more enthusiasm than was necessary.

“It’s like he’s going, ‘A guest! A guest!’” Ohno laughed, fending off Captain’s advances by dancing around the cardboard box of vegetables Nino’s parents had sent him a week before.

“He’s not supposed to be this excited. _Captain_ ,” Nino called out in warning, “watch me.”

Captain stopped prancing and looked at Nino.

Nino maintained eye contact with Captain for a few seconds longer before reaching out to pet him, telling him he was a good dog.

“I love watching you with Captain,” said Ohno, looking at the two of them dreamily, his cheeks still ruddy from their earlier drinking session. “You guys are such a _family_.”

Nino was sober enough to blush. He took out a few cans of beer from the fridge and showed Ohno to the living room. After placing the cans onto the low table, he settled Captain on the rug before opening a drawer in his TV console, revealing part of his game collection.

“Is there anything you want to play?” Nino asked, turning to Ohno, who was gawking at the drawer.

“So many…” Ohno began, eyes roving, before he tapped on one he recognised.

“Really? You want to try playing Mario Kart drunk?” Nino laughed.

“The game world has no laws against drink driving!” Ohno proclaimed, and Nino promptly fixed up his Wii.

Ohno parked himself in a spot between the table and the sofa, using it as a backrest, and Nino copied him. Captain nestled himself in between them, and when there was a scene transition and the screen went black, Nino caught their reflections in the TV and couldn’t help but recall Ohno’s earlier comment about them being a family, and it was all he could do not to turn to Ohno and kiss him.

Too soon, Nino thought, but deep down he knew it was an excuse. He was just afraid to wreck the balance, to upset something good when there wasn’t a promise of something better.

Ohno was blissed out, Nino could tell. It might’ve been because he was buzzed, but Nino guessed Ohno was feeling the same contentment, temporal though it was.

“Nino, hit start.” Ohno pointed at the screen, shaking Nino out of his thoughts.

“Get ready to eat dust, Oh-chan.”

“Don’t speak too soon.”

Two laps later, Nino found out Ohno wasn’t entirely shit at playing, despite his lack of a real-life driver’s licence, but after a few races Ohno’s eyelids started to droop, and Nino paused the game.

“It’s fun, don’t stop,” Ohno protested.

“I know it’s fun, but you’re tired,” said Nino, and Captain raised his head off his paws to look up at Ohno, then at Nino. Nino grinned and rubbed Captain’s coat. “He’s tired, isn’t he, Captain?”

“It’s still your birthday,” Ohno pointed out. “The night is still young. If you could give me some coffee…”

Laughing, Nino angled his elbow against the seat of the sofa, propping the side of his head up with his hand. “You’re being awfully nice, Oh-chan.”

Ohno too placed a bent arm on the sofa, twisting his body so he faced Nino. Then he said, very softly:

“I’d like to stay longer, if that’s okay.”

Nino was well aware of what was happening, of all the charged emotion swirling around them, a teasing mist of temptation that Nino was feeling very weak to that night as their faces came closer.

“I’d actually like that,” said Nino before he leant in to kiss Ohno, or maybe Ohno kissed him, he couldn’t tell; all he knew in that moment was the softness of Ohno’s lips and the jubilation in his heart— _his_ heart, not Ohno’s; and it surprised him that he was, for once, more attuned to himself than someone else.

So this was what Ohno could do to him.

They were about to take the kiss a notch deeper when Captain’s giant head rose up between their chins, separating them, and he started licking both their faces. Nino was too amused to begrudge him; Ohno was already laughing. 

“He’s never seen me kissing anyone before,” explained Nino, standing up and instructing Captain to go back into his crate. “God, how embarrassing. Sorry.”

Ohno was looking wide awake, and in spite of his smile, he was doubtful; Nino decided there was no room for cowardice now that they’d actually kissed, so he knelt in front of Ohno and asked, tentatively:

“Want to try again?”

Ohno kissed him this time, careful, expectant, wanting; and Nino slid his hand up the side of Ohno’s neck, cradling his face, urging their mouths even closer.

“Couldn’t have done this with Sho-chan around,” said Nino at one point.

“No,” Ohno mumbled his agreement through the kiss.

When they finally broke apart Nino realised there’d been a paradigm shift; these surges of courage he was experiencing, these provocations to affection—it was _intimacy_ that bolstered him, and he’d be a fool to ignore the chance that was presenting itself: the chance to tell Ohno, in his newfound bravery, that he was a Prior; and there were things he became privy to that most lovers preferred kept secret.

“Listen.” Nino took Ohno’s hand. “Not to ruin the moment, but there’s something you should know.”

And so Nino told him—he told him everything about how his powers worked, how he could fathom the magnitude of a single emotion, how he thought he was being unfair to Ohno because he couldn’t return his feelings on the same scale, how he understood if Ohno didn’t want to take this further.

Ohno remained silent throughout Nino’s explanation, engaged and sympathetic and curiously anticipating, listening with the greatest concentration Nino had ever seen him muster. It was past midnight when Nino was done, and he watched as Ohno took some time to digest everything Nino had heaped onto him.

When Ohno finally spoke, it was a question.

“Can I hug you?”

Nino, full of surprise, nodded; Ohno took him into his arms. Nino counted several of Ohno’s heartbeats, then:

“Nino, you can’t read your own emotions, right?”

“Right.”

“So you don’t know exactly how much… well, how much you love me—right?”

“Right.”

“Which means you don’t actually know whether or not you’re returning the same amount of love. That’s just your theory.”

“Oh-chan, I believe I’m actually quite self-aware—” Nino started, but he couldn’t go on because Ohno had squeezed the air out of his lungs.

“But I don’t need you to,” Ohno leant back, holding Nino’s arms and looking at him, “because you _want_ to. Don’t you see how that works?”

Nino couldn't stop from smiling; Ohno was talking a lot tonight.

“Love isn’t a one-to-one tradeoff,” Ohno went on, “so just let me love you. I think you’ll come to understand as you love me back. And for the record—I do want this.”

“You’re very sure of yourself,” Nino teased, his heart lighter than it’d been in weeks, “the way you talk about love.”

Ohno gathered Nino into his arms again, his expression serious. “Nino, I need you to not freak out at what I’m about to tell you.”

Nino froze. “Please don’t tell me you’re a straight guy experimenting. Oh wait—are you polyamorous?”

“I’m neither.” Ohno buried his face in Nino’s shoulder. “I’m a Prior too.”

Nino felt the world grind to a halt.

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not,” answered Ohno. “My ability’s a bit rare, and I don’t really talk about it…”

Nino was completely floored. He hadn’t expected this. Ohno had shown no hint of being a Prior; there’d been neither storm nor stress, none of the usual angst or superiority, hardly any of the ennui that had so characterised Nino’s sister.

Either Ohno didn’t care that he was a Prior, or he was just very accepting of it.

“Hold up,” said Nino, “you’re not just saying this to make me feel better? You’re actually _are_ a Prior?”

“There isn’t any incentive in lying to you, is there?”

Nino was _thrilled_ —he hadn’t realised how exhilarating it’d feel to actually fall in love with a Prior. Nino knew it had to do with solidarity—Ohno being a Prior meant the eradication of having to explain the unexplainable; it meant a common ground: shared perspectives and values on how to survive as part of the powered minority; it offered Nino all the assurance he needed, since being a Prior was the root of most of his relationship insecurities.

“My sister shapeshifts, and my best friend’s a ghost-hunter. I don’t think most Priors, however rare, can out-weird those,” assured Nino. “You’re not gonna faze me; I won’t freak out, I promise.”

Ohno looked at Nino in wide-eyed wonder. “Are you actually _excited_ to find out I’m a Prior?”

“I know it’s not the prescribed public reaction,” said Nino gravely, drawing a laugh out of Ohno, “but pray tell.”

When Ohno told Nino he could travel through time, Nino almost passed out.

Ohno was one of the _cool kids_.

Time travel was one of those powers that didn’t interfere with a person’s quality of life very much, yet still proved useful in certain situations. It had everything Nino coveted, and he told Ohno as much.

“I’m _saddled_ with empathy,” continued Nino, “you’re _gifted_ with time travel.”

Ohno shook his head, chuckling. “How about we’re _both_ gifted?”

It was times like these that made Nino want to throw himself at Ohno—these _things_ he said, so offhand sometimes, but still so wise.

They continued talking through the night. There was so much to find out now that they’d discovered such a strong commonality—just the topic of their childhoods took them to three in the morning.

Finally, when they could barely keep their eyes open, they somehow managed to get themselves onto Nino’s bed in the next room, reaching for each other’s hands in the dark; and right before sleep claimed him Nino was just lucid enough to marvel at how their relationship had come so far in merely one night; then he was lost in dreams of time travel and Mario Kart; and kissing Ohno on all the rest of his birthdays; and feeling extraordinarily loved.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part One: Ohno and Nino have a conversation in a closet, and Ohno invites Nino to his apartment. 
> 
> Part Two: Nino goes to Ohno’s apartment; Ohno helps Nino sort out some feelings about how he loves.

Part One: **Ohno and Nino have a conversation in a closet, and Ohno invites Nino to his apartment.**

 

Nino changed out of his cleats to his indoor shoes, unlocked the side door that led into the admin building, and started climbing the stairs that led to the teachers' space. He’d left his flash drive in his computer, and there was a revision worksheet saved in it that was almost done—he just needed to download and insert some pictures, but the school’s internet filter didn’t let him access what he needed, so he’d have to do it at home. 

Nino slid open the door to the office.

“Oh, hey,” greeted Sho, phone against his ear, “I was going to text you. You forgot your USB, didn’t you?”

“How much are they paying you to be my secretary again?” Nino asked.

Sho laughed. “I sit at the end of the aisle, Nino. Everyone’s in my sight. I know all your leaving-school habits: how Higuchi-sensei places a fresh tea bag in his mug, how Nishiuchi-sensei flips her calendar, and how you make sure all your devices are removed and your wireless mouse switched off.”

Sho gave Nino a sinister smile before he looked at the screen of his phone, his expression melting back to normal. “He isn’t answering his phone.”

Nino stared at Sho. “You’re creepy, Sho-chan.”

“I just have stellar management skills,” said Sho, looking proud. “Anyway, Nino—could you do me a favour? Satoshi-kun is still doing the art supplies stock check, and he asked me to give him a call when I was done, but he didn’t pick up his phone, and I have to walk the halls…”

“We could use the PA,” suggested Nino, making for the broadcasting controls that were inside the teachers’ computer lab, but he stopped when he picked up on Sho’s hopeful anticipation, and realised what Sho was wishing he’d say.

“Or I could help you walk the special rooms block,” said Nino smoothly, and Sho just beamed at him.

 _You also have stellar delegation skills,_ Nino thought wryly at Sho, though he felt quite fond. “I’m going to do it for free, but I’ll have you know I’m considering upping my rate come next quarter.”

“I’ll have to look for another vendor, then.” Sho laughed, heading for the door. “Thanks, Nino! I’ll meet you downstairs when you’re done. Don’t forget Satoshi-kun!”

Besides, Nino figured as he walked through the connecting corridor to the other block, now that he and Ohno were technically in a relationship, their interactions at school probably needed to be more professional than before, and what better than practical situations like these for them to rehearse?

Nino did the lower floors first, and when he got to the top floor where the art room was, he knocked before sliding the door open.

Professional, he thought smugly to himself, and strode in.

“Oh-chan,” called Nino, looking around the room. “Sho-chan’s done. You ready to go?”

“I’m in here,” came Ohno’s voice, which Nino traced to an open door to what looked like a supplies closet.

Nino found Ohno looking quite stressed as he referenced a spreadsheet with rows of numbers. “Let me finish this bit, I’m almost done with the seven-and-a-half inch ones.”

Ohno started counting a bunch of paintbrushes, and Nino took the chance to look around. There were shelves upon shelves of art _stuff_ , things Nino hadn’t used for 15 years and had to recall the names of. It struck Nino that Ohno actually knew what every single thing in this room was, what it was used for and how to use it; and he couldn’t help but feel impressed and ridiculously taken.

Ohno ticked against a box on his spreadsheet resolutely before clicking his pen. “Done,” he declared. “Day One over. I might be working on this until Friday.” Ohno made a face, looking down at his clipboard disdainfully.

Then he looked up at Nino with a crooked smile and said: “We’re alone in a closet.”

Nino rolled his eyes. “I swear, if you dare make a coming out joke—”

Ohno backed into the door, shutting it, holding out his arms for Nino to step into.

“We’re at the workplace,” groaned Nino, but his grin betrayed him, “and seriously—we live _right there_ ,” Nino pointed in the direction of their neighbourhood; they really did live a stone’s throw away from the school. “This can’t wait for when we’re at home?”

“No. I want to hug you now.”

Nino held Ohno at arm’s length. “So unprofessional.”

“Just come here already,” said Ohno, tugging on Nino’s hand and pulling him close.

Nino let Ohno hold him, and together they breathed the seconds by. Ohno’s emotions soon brimmed over and presented themselves as a tapestry of splendid, joyful things; Nino knew he'd been the one to weave them together, and it was wonderful to behold.

“Nino, what are you doing tonight?” asked Ohno abruptly.

“Finishing up a worksheet, then _Ruins of Volaris_ , most probably. The prequel is coming out soon, I want to gear myself up for it.”

Ohno laughed. “Well, I was going to ask if you could come over.”

“Come over where?” Nino asked, drawing back.

“My place.”

Ohno wasn’t feeling horny, as far as Nino could tell, but Nino decided to confirm it, just in case.

“You’re not thinking of…” Nino raised his eyebrows.

“I don’t think so, unless…” Ohno bit down on a smile.

“Anything that involves butt is off the cards,” Nino quickly said. “I’m not _conditioned_ for it tonight, there was cauliflower in my lunch.”

Ohno laughed into Nino’s neck. “No—I just want to show you something.”

“Are you being euphemistic? You know I can’t actually read minds, right? Does your something involve your body and no clothes?”

“It could, but only if you want it to,” said Ohno, finally caving, and there it was in plain sight—full-blown lust.

Nino felt a strange sense of triumph.

Sho chose that moment to call, and they scrambled to get apart as Ohno picked up the phone and promised to be downstairs in five minutes. After he disconnected they couldn’t stop giggling, and it was silly and juvenile but horribly endearing, and finally Nino pulled himself together.

“When Sho-chan sees us, we have to be as normal and professional as we usually look,” Nino reminded, placing his hand on the doorknob.

“You bet,” Ohno agreed.

Ohno was still in place, with his back to the door, and Nino felt compelled to give him a quick peck on the lips before they left the room, so he did.

“Oh my God Nino, we live _right there_ ,” said Ohno, exaggerating his incredulity, which earned him a sock on the arm.

“Come on, let's go to your place,” said Nino, grinning, pulling Ohno out of the way so he could open the door.

“Ohno and Ninomiya, coming out of the closet,” announced Ohno grandly as they stepped out, and Nino despaired of him.

What a man.

***

Part Two: **Nino goes to Ohno’s apartment; Ohno helps Nino sort out some feelings about how he loves.**

 

“Oh-chan, your place is the size of the art supplies closet,” joked Nino when they stepped into the apartment, before he realised it wasn’t actually a joke—the apartment was truly that small.

Everything Ohno owned was crammed into that space, and Nino could tell he’d tried to be as neat as he could, but there were fishing rods standing in a rack on top of his mini-fridge, and that was saying something.

Ohno was taking out a tall bottle of beer that barely fit into the door of the fridge. “Go on, sit,” he urged.

“Where?” Nino couldn’t resist the quip, and Ohno pursed his lips at him as he placed the beer and glasses on the coffee table.

Nino settled for a cushion on the floor—it was either that or the bed, and the bed was a lot higher than the coffee table—and crossed his legs, reaching for the bottle opener while Ohno tore open a bag of edamame.

“So what is it that you’re showing me?” asked Nino, after they clinked their glasses in a toast.

Ohno popped a couple of beans into his mouth before he spoke.

“I’ve been thinking about what we talked about this past weekend, and that bit about you not loving the same as I do has been bothering me.”

Nino gave Ohno a dry smile. “Must we go there tonight?”

“You have no idea,” said Ohno cryptically, grinning. “I don’t think your feelings are smaller than mine, and I’ve figured out how to prove it to you,” Ohno took a deep breath, “so I’m going to suggest something that might be a little weird—and new—for you, but I think you might like it.”

Nino drew back, looking at Ohno suspiciously. “No way. BDSM?”

Ohno just stared at him before laughing for the longest time.

When he calmed down, Ohno reached out to touch his fingers to Nino’s neck, brushing his thumb against Nino’s jaw. It was a gesture so tender and sincere that it made Nino’s breath catch.

“I’ve selected my top five Ninomiya Kazunari moments—and I want to take you back to when they happened.”

Nino’s mouth fell open.

“It’s always embarrassing watching yourself, that’s why I felt I had to warn you,” Ohno went on, looking imploringly at Nino. “What do you think?”

Nino was apprehensive; he generally didn’t like to try new things that he didn’t have or want to do. 

“You can actually bring people along with you?”

“I think so.”

“You _think_ so?”

“Well, I haven’t really had someone to go with before.”

“Oh.” Nino sucked in air between his teeth. Ohno was a novice pilot. “Is it dangerous? Will I lose my hold on you and end up getting stuck in time and be unable to come back?”

“Nino. You know all that kind of stuff is fiction, right?”

“No I didn’t. There’s a theory that _Interstellar_ was made by a Prior dude.”

“I didn’t watch that, but no—you will not get stuck in time because you’ll be tethered to me. There’s also a tether to the moment from which we travelled. You’ll snap back when I snap back.”

Nino still felt uneasy about the idea. “Does the travel itself have any side effects? I get seasick.”

“I don’t think so, no.”

“Will we alter history and never get born?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t watch _Back to the Future_ , Oh-chan.”

“I can do this thing to make you imperceptible to the environment in the past, so history won’t even know you’re there.”

This was news to Nino. “That’s fucking cool. Like _Chrono Trigger_ , only in real life.”

“Didn’t watch that either, but yay?”

“It’s a game, Oh-chan.”

“Oh.”

“How far apart are our ages again? Three? Sixteen?”

“If you’re done with your questions, Nino—”

“Not yet. How long will we be gone? Do I have to pack a toothbrush?”

“Are you just trying to be cute, or are you serious?”

“I’m dead serious. I generally don’t like to travel, I’ll have you know. Please answer.”

“You don’t need to pack a toothbrush; we’ll be gone only a moment, but it’ll feel a lot longer in the past.”

Nino drew in a deep breath.

“Okay, thanks for being only mildly impatient, but one last one—do I have to do anything? Like concentrate really hard on a date?”

Ohno smiled and shook his head. “Just hold onto me,” he said, getting to his feet and giving Nino his hand.

They left.

The travelling itself was a peculiar sensation. Nino glimpsed the moment as he crossed it—it seemed to exist as a place, a sort of vacuum of time, if he wanted to be poetic—and it felt as transient as it was an eternity. Nino likened it to the scariest moment on a rollercoaster, where frisson and dread competed with each other for the rider’s favour, where it was both over-too-soon and unnecessarily-long.

During their conversation the night Ohno stayed over, he'd explained that there were Priors out there who could move through time freely, but they were thought to make up a minuscule percentage of the time-travelling population—or perhaps they were just secretive and didn’t want to own up to being Prior, since they held knowledge of the future. 

There was a way around the directional limitations of Ohno’s powers, however. He could travel to any point in the past as long as he started from the present so, as Nino surmised, as long as he returned to present-time after one trip to the past, he could make another trip to a point in time that had occurred after the first one.

The concealment was a different story. It could actually run out, and Ohno panicked for a brief moment when he realised he hadn’t finished concealing Nino when they appeared in the corridor of Nino’s apartment building. Ohno could turn imperceptible the moment he started traveling, and it really only took that ephemerality, but he discovered that night that using his powers on someone else had a marked delay.

When they were all ghosted out, Ohno told Nino they were going to play a game.

“You have to guess what each moment is. The place is your clue.”

Nino grinned. “You’re creative, aren’t you?”

Ohno preened. “I am an artist.”

Nino figured they were going in reverse chronology, so this must've been something recent. He took in Ohno’s smirk and all the fondness he was emanating.

“Oh God,” Nino’s eyes went wide, “this is when we kissed, isn’t it?”

Nino knew he’d gotten it right when Ohno laughed merrily and pulled him right through the door. Nino was so surprised he could pass through matter, he almost forgot to protest.

“Wait, Oh-chan, do we really have to see this?” Nino was already blushing, he was sure of it; his ears were burning. He didn’t mind having the _memory_ of the kiss—Ohno had no faults when it came to kissing—but watching it all over again with his own eyes was a different matter.

A mortifying matter.

“You agreed to come along, Nino.”

“Technically I didn’t, I just gave you my hand—”

“That’s tacit agreement,” argued Ohno, leading Nino into his own living room, “and besides, I warned you earlier that this would be weird. I covered all the bases, Nino.”

Nino groaned as Ohno planted them right in front of themselves, just as the Nino in the past was sending Captain back to his crate after he’d interrupted their first kiss. Nino covered his face with his hands because he knew what was coming, but Ohno dragged on his wrists.

“This part—you were so candid, it made me so relieved,” Ohno said, gripping Nino’s arm gleefully, and Nino tried to turn his face into Ohno’s shoulder, but Ohno clamped his hands around Nino’s head, turning him back to the scene before them.

Stop it,” Ohno scolded, “look: I swear at this moment I was thinking ‘oh fuck, does he want this?’ and then as if on cue you kissed me harder—wait, you must have _read it off of me!_ ”

Nino stood there, cringing as he watched himself cradle the side of Ohno’s jaw to deepen their kiss.

“Look at how you’re holding me, Nino,” said Ohno, captivated; then, under his breath: “God, you are so hot.” 

Nino faced Ohno. “Oh-chan, we’re at a point in our relationship where there are still numerous things that make me be the shy Japanese man I truly am—this is one of them. I am incredibly self-conscious now, and I want to hide somewhere until this is all over.”

Ohno laughed. “I know.”

“Then why are you putting me through this? Why are you providing a commentary? Why are you enjoying my pain?”

“Because,” said Ohno patiently, “this is how I prove to you that you keep reaching out to me.”

Nino didn’t believe it true. “ _You’re_ the one who reaches out to me.”

Ohno shook his head. “I'm not saying I don’t, but you were the one who initiated this kiss, remember?”

“It was just one time…”

Ohno took Nino’s hand. “We have the other four moments to show you I’m right.”

They visited the art room next, the night when Ohno cast his face in plaster.

“I’d just discovered how much I wanted to be with you,” said Ohno, not letting go of Nino’s hand as they listened to their conversation, “and it’d been a confusing time: I wasn’t completely sure anymore if you liked men, Captain couldn’t go on walks so I didn’t really get to get to talk to you outside of work… I made so much art in those couple of weeks, you have no idea. This face cast I couldn’t do at home, for which I’m really glad. We wouldn’t have had this conversation otherwise.”

“I remember. You got confused because of that dinner where Nishiuchi was all over me, right?”

“Yeah.” Ohno gave a laugh. “Hope you didn’t break her heart too bad.”

“You’re _gloating_. You’re a horrible person. Also, she got over it herself.”

Ohno merely responded with a complacent smile.

“You were so evasive those few weeks following,” complained Nino, “leaving school so punctually and all that.”

“I was figuring things out.” Ohno sounded apologetic now. “But look,” he pointed at the Nino in the past, “you fixed it by asking me out to dinner.”

Nino couldn’t deny that.

Ohno took him to the locker room next, and Nino guessed correctly again: they were going to watch the moment when Ohno tucked Nino’s tie under his collar, and this time Ohno had the good grace to be shy—only he tried very hard not to show it.

“Look at that,” Ohno crowed, trying to chase away his embarrassment as they watched the exchange transpire. “You were swooning over me.”

“You realise that whenever I don’t call you out on how you really feel about something, I’m being the better man, right?”

Ohno huffed and poked Nino in the ribs, and Nino poked right back.

“How is this episode a Nino moment, though?” asked Nino, after they stopped jabbing each other. “Isn’t it more of yours?”

“You let me flirt with you; it was this day that I sort of knew you were on the market,” said Ohno, and the simplicity of his explanation made Nino break into a cheek-aching grin.

By the next stop (the park), the worst of Nino’s mortification was over, and watching himself in the past was becoming like ‘watching a homemade sex tape without the sex’, he’d thought out loud, making Ohno choke on a laugh and say: “Shy Japanese man, my ass.”

“What about your ass?” Nino murmured, suddenly pressing himself flush to Ohno, enjoying the way Ohno shuddered when he trailed his fingers down Ohno’s forearm.

“Stop your seduction, please.”

“Why? We’re literally the only people in this universe. We could have sex on the pavement and no one would care.”

“People _would_ care, because I’d then lose my hold on the concealment and the police would be all over us in a minute,” chided Ohno.

“Or I could be all over you in a minute.”

“…Give me back my shy Japanese man,” mourned Ohno, grabbing Nino’s arms.

Nino laughed, deciding to curb his jokes as he caught sight of their past selves walking up to the gazebo, Captain in tow; this had been the first time they hung out outside the workplace.

“One of the things that struck me about you was how easily you made me laugh, how comfortable I felt talking to you even though I’d only known you four days,” Ohno confessed. “Also your dog was hella cute.”

“I know, right?”

The fifth stop was a no-brainer—it was the pantry in the teachers’ space, and there’d only been one happening in there worth mentioning.

Ohno didn’t offer any commentary this time; he just watched the conversation unfold, grinning through the whole thing, standing beside past-Nino as they all watched past-Ohno leave the pantry.

“I need to own up to something,” Ohno said as past-Nino returned to the sink to wash his mug.

“Own up?”

“This isn’t my first time here.” Ohno gave Nino an odd smile.

It took a while for Nino to understand what Ohno was saying. He grinned. “You can find your way around the pantry in the dark now, can’t you?”

The other Nino left, and Ohno walked over to Nino and circled his arms around his waist, in a move Nino interpreted as Ohno needing comfort, and perhaps a bit of courage.

“When I realised how much I liked you…” Ohno was shy; and very, very serious.

“Yeah?” said Nino, suddenly breathless with the way Ohno was looking at him.

“I kept coming back to this day, this place, this moment—I guess it’s because it was the first time anyone here really spoke to me, and it could’ve been anybody, but it was _you_ , and I was convinced that meant something.

“This is where we started—where _you_ started us, and I really wanted to believe in an _us_. I don’t think we were in love with each other at this point, but somehow…” Ohno gestured, searching for the words but unable to come up with any, “do you get what I’m saying?”

“I do,” Nino said, his heart feeling like it might burst, because there was so much joy struggling to get out of him. “I really do,” Nino repeated, before hugging Ohno close.

The next moment they were back in Ohno’s room, Nino still filled with that grandiose elation Ohno had lit in him; an elation he knew was all his own, and he pressed his forehead to Ohno’s before telling him: “You know, when I’m with you, _I know how I feel_.”

Ohno gave him a puzzled look.

“It’s almost as if… your feelings—they don’t overshadow mine, they complement them. With you, I don’t obsess about whether or not you’re happy—I get to focus on how happy you make me. This hasn’t happened to me before. You don’t know how you’re changing me, Oh-chan, but please know you are.”

Ohno was incredibly moved. “I take it the top five Ninomiya Kazunari moments fulfilled their purpose?”

Nino gave a soft laugh and nodded.

“Can’t fight love, I guess,” said Nino, and he felt very special and very loved when Ohno brushed his fingertips across his cheek, and pressed his lips against his.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guys go watch the Kujukuri band concert, and Ohno thinks about how he can contribute to the Prior community.

The thing Nino was worried most about Aiba meeting Ohno was that Aiba would say something stupid in an attempt to make small talk, since he knew the topic of Aiba’s choice would be Nino. Like, _Nino got dangerously broke in 2013 because he bought too many games!_ , or _Nino doesn’t like phone sex!_ —both of which were actually true, among other odd and private things Aiba had gleaned from being in Nino’s life for the past five years.

For the most part, Nino was thankful for Aiba. He’d been the first Prior outside of his family Nino had opened up his heart to, and even though they hadn’t worked as lovers (or even friends with benefits), Aiba would forever be the Starsky to his Hutch.

“Hey, Ohno-kun,” Nino heard Aiba saying as he re-entered the lobby of the performance hall, “did Nino ever tell you four years ago he wiped out his bank account because he was enslaved to his gaming and lost track of his budget?”

“Okay, bye,” said Nino, standing up so he could put himself in the middle of Ohno and Aiba, “don’t you have a job to get to?”

“My next assignment is at nine, it’s only five,” Aiba eyed Nino wickedly, “and don’t you have to be chaperoning your students or something?”

“They’re dismissed and free to roam,” said Nino, pointing at the crowd in general, the members of the baseball team mingling with their friends, congratulating the band kids on a successful performance. Sho wasn’t out yet; they were waiting to congratulate him as well.

“Ninomiya-san!” a voice called, and Nino turned, searching for its source.

Nino smiled and waved as he saw Jun coming over, weaving past pockets of picture-taking parents and laughing teenagers. He turned to Aiba and Ohno. “That’s my vet. Well, technically, my vet’s son, who’s also a vet.”

Jun reached them, and Nino said: “Jun-sensei! Fancy seeing you here!”

“Oh—the band conductor’s my friend.”

“Sho-chan? You know Sho-chan?”

“Since I was five, actually. He’s my piano teacher’s son.”

“How is it possible that you know everybody?”

“I’m very sociable?” Jun grinned. He gestured to Ohno and Aiba. “And these are?”

“This is Ohno-sensei, the art teacher; and this is Aiba-kun, who’s an old boy of the band, actually—what did you play again?”

“Baritone sax,” answered Aiba proudly.

“He played baritone sax,” repeated Nino to Jun, not missing a beat.

Jun laughed. “Nice to meet you,” he said, angling his head at Ohno and Aiba, who returned the bow.

“Oh, Sho-chan,” voiced Ohno, pointing, and they all turned to see Sho jogging up, smiling brightly at all of them.

“What’s this, a party?” Sho started, then he gave an excited little wave to Aiba. “Hello again—Aiba-san, right?”

“You remember me!” Aiba beamed. “Good work today,” he continued, making conducting motions with his hands.

“You made it,” said Sho, turning to Jun, clapping him on the arm. “Wait—how do you know these guys?”

“We met through my dog,” said Nino, summing it up.

Sho laughed, loud and hard, before grinning at the group. “Thank you all so much for coming.”

After all the _otsukare_ -s had been said, they found out each other’s ages, which prompted Jun to point out he still didn’t have many friends his age in Kujukuri, having spent most of his post-high school life in Tokyo, and he suggested they all hang out sometime.

Sho found out Aiba had been attending the Kujukuri annual band concerts for as long as he’d graduated junior high, leading to Sho asking Aiba for his contact details so he could ask him for advice for future performances.

Aiba took this as his cue to give out his new business card, explaining that he was now an official executive member of the Prior-Sapiens Friendship Association, and yes, he was a Prior, and the Association was always looking for volunteers, Prior and non-Prior alike, so if any of them would like to join, they could drop him a line.

When they all finished exchanging contact information, they went their separate ways: Sho had to oversee the transport of the musical instruments back to the school, Jun had to go back to the clinic, Aiba had to visit a mentee’s home and Nino was driving to Tokyo to meet the friend he was selling his car to. Ohno was going home, which was just 15 minutes away, so Nino offered to give him a lift.

In the car on the way to Ohno’s apartment, Ohno was engrossed with his phone. Nino didn’t try to delve into his emotions, but he could pick up that Ohno was interested in something new, something exciting.

“I think I’d like to be a mentor,” said Ohno after a while, still scrolling through the contents on his screen. “My powers have never really bothered me, but not all Prior kids get to have that.”

Nino snorted. “Tell me about it,” he said, but as the words left his mouth, he realised how it could be interpreted; sure enough, he immediately sensed Ohno’s fluster.

“Oh-chan, don’t worry,” said Nino, putting a hand on Ohno’s knee to comfort him. “You’re not being insensitive or anything. Sorry for saying that—I didn’t mean to make things awkward.”

“No, you didn't,” said Ohno, getting increasingly apologetic, which in turn made Nino guilty. “Sorry, I knew how different our childhoods were and yet…”

“Oh-chan, seriously—it’s fine.”

“Yeah, but even if I didn’t upset you, it was still insensitive.”

Nino was feeling exceptionally bad now. He’d read off Ohno’s emotions, told him to his face how _he_ felt, as if Ohno didn’t know his own heart, as if he wanted his feelings spelt out.

They pulled up under Ohno’s apartment building, still steeping in their discomfiture, hardly a word exchanged between them.

Ohno unbuckled his seatbelt. He turned to Nino.

“We didn’t just have a fight, did we?”

Nino braved a smile. “I think if we did, we’d know.”

Ohno seemed to relax a bit.

“Nino…”

“Hm?”

“Don’t feel bad about reading my feelings, okay?”

Ohno was more perceptive than Nino had thought.

“I’ll get used to it,” Ohno continued, “so you just… be yourself.”

Nino held Ohno’s gaze for a moment longer before swinging his head around to check if there was anybody watching. It was risky, it being still light out, but God, Nino needed to kiss Ohno.

He heard Ohno let out a small ‘mmrf’ as their teeth collided painfully, but Nino didn’t have time to laugh it off; he parted his lips to capture Ohno’s once more, this time properly; then quickly pulled back, satisfied.

“Nino,” Ohno's tone was stern, “I have _neighbours_.”

“So do I.”

“Nino. I’m not joking.”

“…Sorry?”

“You’re not sorry. Wipe that grin off your face.”

“Don’t use your teacher voice on me.” Nino laughed, reaching over to open Ohno’s door. “I have to get to Tokyo. I’ll text you?”

“Nino—”

“I love you,” said Nino, “now go.”

Ohno fell silent, obviously startled, but as far as Nino could tell he was more happy than shocked to hear the words. Neither of them had been this direct before.

“Come on, Oh-chan. I’m running late,” said Nino, his voice gentler now.

Ohno left the car, and after waving to him, Nino drove off. Minutes later his navigation system started trilling; he was getting a call from Ohno. Nino hit a button to switch on the handsfree function.

“Hello?”

“Hi. I just wanted to say I love you, too,” said Ohno, and he sounded so shy that Nino could imagine him on the other end of the line, scratching his nose just so he had something to do with his hands to help dissipate his embarrassment.

“You know I don’t need you to put your feelings into words, right?”

“I know. I just thought it was something you’d like to hear.”

“It is.”

“Good.” Ohno paused.

“Oh-chan, you have my full support on the mentor thing,” said Nino, remembering they hadn’t actually taken that conversation further. “You’re kind, trustworthy, great with teenagers—you’ll do a good job.”

“Thanks. It means a lot coming from you.”

“I’m about to go on the motorway—let’s talk later, all right?”

“Okay.”

“Love you,” they both said at the same time, and they laughed as they realised what had just happened, then Nino said goodbye and disconnected the call, amazed at how he had so much to be thankful for.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nino and Ohno plan a night together.

They’d started having sex the night Ohno brought them back in time, and after their fourth time together they realised they had to eventually have the So-do-we-fuck-each-other-in-the-ass-or-not talk, since neither of them were trying to prompt the other into it.

As it turned out, it was mainly because Ohno didn’t have the greatest experience as a bottom, and Nino simply didn’t have enough lube on hand.

Nino suggested some easy fixes for that, so one evening in late July, after some careful planning over text messaging, Nino was in the pharmacy wearing a mask and dark-rimmed glasses, looking only slightly suspicious as he made for the aisle that sold condoms and lube.

It was a small town. Some of his former students were working in businesses around the area—they could very well be the people manning the tills.

When Nino got to the aisle, there was a guy in a baseball cap there, perusing condoms. Nino wanted to make his selection alone, so he stayed at his end of the aisle and started looking at band-aids.

A long minute later, Nino became impatient. He was meeting Ohno in fifteen minutes, yet he was still stuck there trying to get supplies. Nino inched closer to the shelf, hoping the guy would get the hint and hurry up, when he suddenly got close enough to identify the guy’s emotional imprint.

“Nice hat,” whispered Nino, clamping down on a giggle.

Ohno jumped. “What the fuck— _Nino_?”

It made perfect sense for them to meet here; this was the pharmacy nearest to both their homes.

Nino laughed, hands flying to his mouth to muffle the sound. “I thought I was supposed to get the stuff?”

“Wasn’t that my job?”

“No matter, let’s look at them together.”

Ohno pressed his fist against his mask to keep from laughing. “Yeah. Not like we’re gonna use them without each other.”

“Oh God, what if people recognise us and are like, ‘gay teachers alert’?”

“Well, for all they know we could be virgins, curious about our first time with a lady after spending years masturbating to online porn.”

“Change the word ‘lady’ to ‘dude’ and that was me and my straight female friend in uni.”

Ohno cracked up, and Nino shushed him; eventually they decided on what to buy, and fled the pharmacy cackling like hags.

They immediately headed to Nino’s place, and when they finally left the shower and entered Nino’s bedroom, Nino peeled himself away from Ohno to shut the door, pausing only to apologise to Captain, who was in the hallway looking at them. Nino thought Captain probably didn’t mind by now; he seemed to understand that when Ohno came over and got naked with Nino, it meant he was going to be left alone for a little while.

On a whim, Nino circled his arms around Ohno’s neck and leapt onto him; Nino was giddily surprised at how strong Ohno was when Ohno caught him easily under his thighs. He wound his legs around Ohno, held onto his shoulders and let him steer them towards the bed.

There lay in Ohno a raw desire begging to be exploited, and Nino decided to feed it by fervently listing his requests for the night, making Ohno call him a ‘very bad boy’.

Somehow, that didn’t sound tacky at all. 

“Is there anything you aren’t talented at?” Nino asked after part of the hour had passed, barely biting back a moan as Ohno started moving his fingers the way Nino really, _really_ liked, but he gave Ohno no chance to reply as he tasted Ohno’s mouth again and again.

“Maths,” Ohno finally found the opportunity to say when Nino stopped for air, “I’m rubbish at Maths.”

Nino laughed, and slipped his hand between Ohno’s legs.

Most of the bottle of lube later, Ohno was propped upright by pillows stacked against the headboard, knees bent; Nino faced Ohno, straddling his hips, back pressed against his thighs. As they rocked into each other in wordless ecstasy, their gazes locked—and Nino realised this was his world now; a world that he was creating with Ohno, and everything was lovely and beautiful.

“Tip me over,” whispered Nino when the time came, and with a groan Ohno pushed off the mattress, Nino helping by putting weight onto his haunches. As Ohno stroked, Nino wrapped his fingers around himself, matching Ohno’s rhythm; then along with Ohno’s shuddering gasp, the world was filled with an explosion of colour—it was joy and love in realms beyond most, unadulterated and powerful; and though Nino knew it all belonged to Ohno, Ohno was _his_ ; which, Nino supposed, made the feelings his, too.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> August 5, 2017.

The baseball season ended early for Kujukuri Junior High that year—they lost their second game, and while Nino was quite bummed about it, there were other things to cheer him up that summer.

Nino was busy the first weekend of August: his parents were holidaying through Kanto and were stopping by his place just before they went back to Fukushima; the baseball kids who graduated the previous year wanted to meet him for a barbecue; Jun was organising a drinks-slash-supper that would take place after said barbecue; and there was going to be a fireworks festival over the entire weekend, which Nino hadn’t made plans to attend but Ohno was going with some of their colleagues, Sho included. Ohno had sent Nino a picture of him in the yukata he was going to wear, and Nino’s first thoughts were fun, filthy ones about how he could take it off him, so that was good.

“Kaa-san, you ready to go?” said Nino on Saturday morning, hooking Captain’s leash onto his collar.

Nino’s mother loved Captain, and now that she was staying over for a few days, she went with Captain and Nino on their morning walks. She hadn’t met Ohno yet—he was out of town for a few days, on a fishing trip with some friends—but Nino was quite keen to introduce Ohno to his parents.

Ohno was due back that very morning, and Nino had actually hoped he could join his family for lunch—Ohno had said he’d think about it, and would tell Nino via text.

Nino checked his phone. There were still no messages from Ohno.

“Come on, Captain,” said Nino’s mother cheerfully, taking hold of the leash.

“Tou-san, we’re heading out,” Nino called towards the living room, and his father bade them goodbye before returning to his news programme.

They made their way to the park, the morning sun already mercilessly hot, and Nino’s mother had to keep mopping her face with her handkerchief. They talked about Captain, about Nino’s job, Nino’s sister, his parents’ health; before Nino paused their conversation to check his phone.

_I’m home. Are your parents still here? What time is lunch?_

Nino’s heart soared as he read Ohno’s message.

“Kaa-san,” said Nino as he typed up his reply and hit ‘Send’, “is it cool if you made lunch for four people instead of three?”

Nino’s mother gave him a curious look. “Who’s coming? Aiba-kun?”

“No, not Aiba-kun.”

“Oh dear, did you and him break up?”

Nino blinked several times, computing, before he laughed. “Kaa-san, we were never together!”

“Ah, sorry. I just thought—I mean, you seem to spend a lot of time with him.”

“I used to, until I met the guy who’s coming over for lunch.” Nino grinned.

“Oh!” exclaimed Nino’s mother. “So there _is_ someone!”

Nino proceeded to tell his mother as much as he could without spoiling her, and even though it wasn’t the kind of thing Nino tended to share with his father, when he got home from walking Captain, Nino thought it necessary to give his father a heads up that his boyfriend was coming over for lunch.

There’d been a time when Nino couldn’t be this open about who he was dating with his parents; they’d known nothing about his sexuality until three years before, during which he’d been with a guy he’d seen a definite future with. Although eventually things hadn’t worked out between them, that man had been the first boyfriend Nino had introduced to his parents, the main reason why Nino was even out to his parents in the first place. Nino guessed that every relationship, even those that failed, yielded valuable lessons—in his case, he learnt how accepting and open-minded his family could be.

So, when the doorbell rang just before lunchtime, Nino silently thanked Ikuta Toma for ever being in his life, and opened the door to a very dark-skinned Ohno Satoshi, who came with flowers for Nino’s mother and _sake_ for his dad.

“Did you forget your sunblock or something?” Nino remarked as he took the gifts for his parents out of Ohno’s hands.

“It’s just sunny out at sea, surely you know that.” Ohno grinned. He held up a cooler box. “I brought fish, too. I know you don’t like sashimi, but I hope your parents do.”

“Is there _anything_ for me?” asked Nino, voice rising, and Ohno laughed as he entered the kitchen, shaking his head.

“If you’re talking about an actual present, then no.” There was a naughty gleam in Ohno’s eye as he said this, and before Nino could react, Ohno darted his hand under Nino’s t-shirt to squeeze his bare waist before raking his fingers down the curve of his back towards his ass; and as quickly as it happened it was over.

Nino’s face grew hot; they were going to behave like horny teenagers for as long as they stuck with each other, that’s for sure.

“So—where’re your parents?” Ohno’s expression returned to its default calm.

“Waiting for you in the living room,” said Nino, noting Ohno’s sudden bashfulness, undisclosed on his face.

Nino was very amused throughout the entire meeting of Ohno and his parents; Nino’s father was fascinated with Ohno’s ability to travel through time—he’d been a physics teacher for most of his career—and poor Ohno, who hadn’t retained a lick of knowledge about the principles of things like light and gravity, struggled to answer all of Mr Ninomiya’s questions. Nino suggested Ohno take his dad back in time after they got a little more familiar with each other, and the look on Nino’s father’s face was priceless as he gasped: “You can do that?”

Nino’s mother, on the other hand, was more concerned about Ohno’s character. She asked him about his reasons for becoming a teacher and about why he chose to leave Niigata to work in Chiba. She also apologised on Nino’s behalf, since the couple had only known each other a mere four months and already Nino was having Ohno meet his parents, but Ohno assured her there wasn’t a ‘too soon’ when it came to such things.

Nino was pleased to know his mother was impressed with Ohno’s answer; he was even more glad to know Ohno truly meant what he said.

After lunch, Nino’s parents had to go back to Fukushima because Mr Ninomiya had a function to attend, while Nino and Ohno were going to Ooami to collect Nino’s new Subaru. Nino’s parents gave them a ride to the train station, and in the 12 minutes that they were in the car, Ohno picked up some expressions in the Fukushima dialect, and Nino wanted to hug him when he nailed the intonation of ‘there’s nothing I can do about it if you want to put it that way’. His parents actually ooh-ed and aah-ed when Ohno said it, and praised him for having an ear for Fukushima-ben.

“I love your parents,” said Ohno, beaming at Nino after they finally stopped waving goodbye to the car. “After getting to know them, I can totally see why you’re a wonderful person.”

Nino couldn’t stop grinning the entire ride to Ooami.

On the train, Ohno kept sneezing because the woman sitting beside him was drenched in a perfume he was apparently quite allergic to, and Nino wondered what she did for a living because on top of her skimpy outfit, she wore a set of crazy high heels that looked like they could murder a person.

The rest of the day was packed with activities for both Nino and Ohno—Nino was going to drop Ohno off at the Prior-Sapiens Friendship Association in Chiba City, where he was going for his first counsellor training, then Nino would go back to Kujukuri and meet his students for the barbecue, and finally at night they’d meet again at Jun’s place, which was actually the Matsumoto family residence, and according to Sho it was ‘fucking huge’.

When they got to the Association building, they were both completely floored to see Jun there—he’d also responded to Aiba’s call for volunteers, and was going to take his third training session that day. As they chatted Nino realised _this_ was what Jun wanted to do—Jun was filled with purpose and passion and he was _happy_ —Nino wished him all the best from the bottom of his heart.

With so much fun to be had, the afternoon flashed past; Nino received a belated birthday present from his former students, a baseball glove that they’d all chipped in to buy. They went for barbecue at a restaurant on a rooftop terrace so they could watch the fireworks as they ate—it occurred to Nino that his students were growing up really fast, making dining choices that were geared towards a more mature crowd—and Nino paid for the dinner, his students lining up to thank him loudly for the treat when it was time to go home.

He made sure his students got to their parents’ cars and the train station safely before keying Jun’s address into the navigation system. It led him to what looked very much like a beach villa, and after he parked he stood by his car to admire the last of the fireworks, blooming and sparkling in the night, their light reflected in the dark waters of the ocean.

“Nino!” came a shout from behind, and it was Aiba, waving from an open window of the Pajero that was rumbling into the driveway, and several things struck Nino as odd: Aiba didn’t drive a Pajero; he’d been waving from the passenger side of the car; and Nino was certain he’d seen (and even parked beside) this particular Pajero before—numerous times since March, in fact—the licence plate was a dead giveaway.

Sure enough, when the headlights were killed, Sho stepped out of the driver’s side.

Nino didn’t say anything; he kept his face impassive as Sho and Aiba came up to him, and Nino immediately detected their furtive joy.

Oh wow. He hadn’t seen this coming. He wasn’t sure if he was more shocked by the fact that these two were together, or learning that _Sho wasn’t straight_.

Aiba hooked an arm in Nino’s and smiled sweetly.

“Nino-chan, I have something to tell you, but I have this feeling you know already…”

“Hi, Nino,” greeted Sho.

“ _Hi_ , Sho-chan.” Nino couldn’t help but sound coy, earning a shove from Aiba. Sho pretended not to notice and walked past them so he could lead them to the entrance of the Matsumoto mansion.

Trailing behind Sho, Aiba whispered that he’d wanted to tell Nino earlier, but they hadn’t had a chance to meet and catch up because life happened.

“Sho-chan called me, we started talking about the Kujukuri band, and one conversation led to another, then we went on a date and we really got along, then we went on like three more, and this might be embarrassing for him so don’t you _dare_ tell him you know, but last night we made love for the first time and it was _so_ good,” explained Aiba in a single breath, and he was _glowing_ —Nino had to laugh.

“You’ve not been this excited about a guy in a while,” Nino teased.

“He’s…” Aiba clutched at the air, trying to find the words. “I love him,” said Aiba helplessly.

“Wow.”

“I know, right. Hopeless.”

“You and me both.”

They walked up the granite steps of the house to join Sho, who was standing in the entranceway ringing the doorbell, and within a few seconds they were buzzed in.

A housekeeper ushered them to a landscaped garden with an impressive collection of summer blossoms and evergreens. Ohno was already there, laughing about something with Jun.

“Pizza?” Nino laughed as he caught sight of what was on the picnic table between the two. “In a Japanese garden?”

Jun grinned. “East meets west, right?”

They all got beers and Jun made the opening toast, thanking all of them for coming despite their busy schedules. They took their seats, Sho and Jun on one side of the table and Aiba, Nino and Ohno opposite them.

It was after a few drinks that Sho cleared his throat and said matter-of-factly:

“Jun, Aiba-kun and I are dating.”

Jun was surprised at first, then he gave Sho a crooked smile and raised his glass to Aiba. “So _you’re_ the one. He’s got this dumb brand of secrecy; been calling you ‘A-kun’ for weeks.”

Aiba cackled and clinked his glass against Jun’s.

Sho socked Jun’s arm. “You’re impossible.”

Ohno was staring at Sho, his jaw slack. “Wait… Sho-kun… You like boys?”

Sho gave Ohno a weak smile. “Surprise?”

“Nino,” Ohno turned to face him, frowning, “did you know?”

Nino held up both his hands, claiming ignorance. “I had no idea.”

Sho was looking quite rueful.

“Sho-chan, you made the right move,” said Nino, “separating your personal life and work life. Don’t feel sorry.”

“Thank you, Nino,” moaned Sho appreciatively, grabbing a half-full bottle of beer to refill Nino’s glass.

“For the record, Sho-kun, I wasn’t judging,” Ohno took a sip of his drink, “because I’m into boys too.”

Nino choked on his beer.

“I didn’t tell Sho-chan about you two,” whispered Aiba as he thumped Nino’s back, and Nino tried to shoot him a grateful look as he coughed.

“What—?!” Sho near-screeched, eyes so round that his forehead was crinkling.

“Calm down,” said Jun from beside him.

“We might as well tell them,” said Ohno, looking at Nino and Aiba, “I mean, Aiba-chan already knows anyway.”

Nino licked his lips, considering; he realised he was more receptive of the idea than he’d thought.

“Jun-kun, you don’t know us very well,” Nino started, gesturing to his side of the table, “so I hope this isn’t weird—I mean, it’s your party…”

Jun smiled. “So I’m hanging out with two couples tonight. That’s fine; I’ve been in stranger situations.”

“I knew you guys were getting really close, but I never thought it was like this!” Sho burst out, bouncing in his seat, wagging his finger at Nino and Ohno, making them laugh. “Dammit, Aiba-kun—you’re surprisingly good at keeping secrets!”

“Whaddaya know, I’m super loyal. Right, Nino?”

Nino faced Sho, nodding. “He’s super loyal.”

And it might’ve been the alcohol working, but Nino suddenly felt protective, and he rose, setting his mouth in a tight line, clapping his hand over Sho’s forearm.

“Aiba-san’s saved my sanity countless times, so if you do anything to hurt him…”

Sho was looking quite scared. Ohno and Aiba pulled Nino back down to his seat.

“Sorry, Sho-chan—Nino’s drunk,” said Ohno, laughing.

“He’s a truthful drunk,” said Aiba, sounding a little choked up despite his smile. “Please take care of me, Sho-chan.”

“Yeah, otherwise Nino will cut you,” joked Jun, making all of them crack up.

There was more beer and food to be had, and at the end of it Nino couldn’t remember much, but he knew he was incredibly blessed; and for the first time in a long time he felt like his empathy was a gift, because he knew exactly how much these four men around him loved him, each in their own special way; and although Nino didn’t tell them straight, they all knew he loved them back.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lazy, epic day.

It was the third week of the summer vacation and Nino and Ohno finally had some time off, and when Ohno suggested they do something together, Nino said to leave the planning to him.

Basically, Nino wanted to play _Fortress of Volaris_ all day—Ohno was just going to sit around.

Ohno had seen it coming and didn’t seem to mind; he had an idea for a new project and appreciated being given the time to conceptualise it. He arrived in the morning armed with a backpack, a bedhead and his usual smile.

It was the first time they were having a date while it was still light out, never mind that it was at home.

When Nino greeted him at the door, he found himself nervous; despite the brazen advances he’d made on Ohno over the past two months, Nino was hesitating to kiss him. Seeing Ohno standing there made him realise Ohno hadn't come here just to talk about their relationship, or to have sex, or to meet his parents—Ohno was going to spend the entire day at his place doing his own thing, and Nino would be doing his own thing, and it was painfully mundane and _new_ for them, and Nino wasn’t sure they could survive it because, surely, Ohno would find him a bore.

“I got some treats for Captain,” said Ohno, patting his backpack as he entered the kitchen.

“Oh. Thanks.” Nino shifted his eyes away from Ohno’s mouth.

Ohno looked at Nino weirdly. “You okay?”

Nino fidgeted. “I don’t quite know,” he managed a weak smile, “when to kiss you?”

Ohno took a couple of seconds to figure the situation out before landing a quick kiss on Nino’s lips.

“Good morning,” said Ohno definitely, squeezing Nino’s arm. Then he started considering something.

“I think I need to pee; let me put my stuff down first,” said Ohno as he laughed, and then he made for the living room, crying out in delight as Captain came over to say hi; leaving Nino in the kitchen wondering if this was how every free day with Ohno would be like, and how he certainly could get used to it.

Early afternoon found Nino sitting cross-legged on the floor, blissfully lost in Volaris; and Ohno was behind him settled on the floor-level sofa, pencil scratching over paper; legs stretched out so his toes pressed into Nino’s bottom, absentmindedly giving him some sort of mini massage.

Nino then heard a loud squelching sound from behind him, and his first instinct was to look at Captain, who was fast asleep in his crate, but when he heard the sound again he realised it was Ohno’s stomach. He paused the game and got up.

“Oh-chan, it’s one-thirty. Want to go eat?”

“Yeah,” said Ohno, staring at his sketchbook, frowning at a non-human face Nino didn’t recognise. “Let’s eat.”

Having said that, Ohno made no attempt to move.

Nino pried the sketchbook and pencil out of Ohno’s hands, put them on the table, collected all the stray pages that were littered on the sofa and the floor and piled them onto the table as well.

He climbed into Ohno’s lap, facing him.

“Aren’t you hungry?” asked Nino, cradling Ohno’s face with both hands, hovering close enough to kiss him.

Ohno automatically leant in to close their distance, humming against Nino’s lips; he then travelled his hands under Nino’s t-shirt, and Nino took this as his cue to remove it; as he did so he was literally struck by Ohno’s heady excitement, raring to take things further.

So Nino grasped Ohno’s t-shirt and tugged; then they were both shirtless, shivering a little in the sudden coolness of the air-conditioning.

Their lips met again, and Ohno gripped Nino’s waist, pushing Nino’s hips downwards. He met Nino midway by lifting his own hips away from the sofa, and Nino gamely grinded down as he felt Ohno’s want wash over him.

“I hope you don’t mind that I’m reading you,” said Nino, as it occurred to him it might not be something Ohno welcomed.

“Why should I? I think it’s hot you know exactly how turned on I am,” said Ohno against Nino’s mouth, making him grin.

Nino rose on his knees and started unbuttoning his shorts, making sure Ohno was watching as he pulled the zipper down. He kept his pants on as he slid off Ohno to lie on the length of the sofa, looking at him invitingly before glancing down at his crotch.

Ohno gave him a look of pure yearning before hooking his fingers on the waistbands of both Nino’s shorts and his underwear, and started pulling very carefully. Nino’s cock sprang up as the fabric passed it, and even though they giggled at the comicality of its motion, Nino knew it unravelled all of Ohno’s inhibitions; he took advantage of it by pulling Ohno on top of him, crushing their lips together.

“I have two requests,” said Ohno breathlessly as he paused the kiss, “one: we use our first names when it’s just the two of us.”

“So… _Satoshi_?” asked Nino, teasing at first, but the intimacy of the address was so foreign, it suddenly made him shy.

“Yes,” answered Ohno, pleased. He sighed as he ran a hand up Nino’s stomach, then trailed it down again.

“Kazu.”

All senses lit, Nino pulled him down once more, but they soon broke apart again as Ohno drew back, eyes dark, murmuring that he still had one other request.

Nino gave a breathy giggle as Ohno lowered his mouth against Nino's ear, and in a voice that was deliciously low and dripping with want, Ohno said:

“I want your cock in my mouth.”

Nino’s breath hitched. “Fuck,” he whispered hoarsely, “yes, please.”

Nino pushed himself up to sit, and Ohno moved the table away before positioning himself on the floor, arching his back and threading his arms into the gap between Nino’s thighs and the floor couch. His hands found the part of Nino’s ass just above his tailbone, and Nino hadn’t known that was a zone that could turn him on when touched, but he rasped when Ohno squeezed, so now both of them knew.

Ohno nuzzled against Nino, then proceeded to prove that his mouth was Nino’s true magical place, Volaris be damned.

“Satoshi,” Nino moaned at one point, when Ohno took his hand and placed it at the back of his head, allowing Nino to control their pace. Nino could only whimper and fist the throw blanket in his other hand, trying not to buck his hips too hard.

About a minute later, just when Nino was fighting to stay on the edge, Captain roused from his nap. Nino had been making more noise than usual, and because they hadn’t ever finished with Captain in the room, they didn’t realise he’d be anything to consider until he came over to lick Nino’s face.

It was quite surreal for Nino when he climaxed while instructing Captain to go back to his crate.

“Captain, house, please, hou - ah, ahhh - _house_ ,” begged Nino, and Ohno almost choked as he tried to suppress his laughter. The moment Nino was done, Ohno grabbed several tissues to wipe his mouth, gasping for breath as he finally could laugh.

When Nino regained control of his faculties and Ohno had stopped laughing, Captain came back up to Nino to make peace.

“It’s okay, I wasn’t angry,” said Nino to Captain, hugging him. He turned to Ohno, who was watching them fondly.

“I’m hugging my dog while naked. It’s hella weird,” whispered Nino loudly, covering Captain’s ears.

Ohno cracked up.

It was then Nino realised Ohno was still half-clothed. He got up to his feet.

“Oh-chan,” he started automatically, before catching himself. “I mean, Satoshi…” Nino winced as the awkwardness of using Ohno’s name hit him once more.

“You don’t have to call me ‘Satoshi’ if you don’t want to,” said Ohno simply, and Nino knew he wasn’t offended at all.

“Oh believe me, I want to,” said Nino promptly, “it’s just that ‘Satoshi’ seems too special to be used in regular conversation, you know? I mean, it’s one thing when you’re being a god in bed and I find the need to verbally punctuate my worship, but other than that…”

Ohno laughed and took Nino’s hand. “You can call me whatever you want.”

It was a funny way for the realisation to take form, but through that conversation Nino knew he was being completely accepted, and it was strange and marvellous and overwhelming because he’d spent most of his adult life not meeting his lovers’ expectations in some way or another, yet here was a creature who was willing to have him, warts and all.

“Come,” said Nino resolutely, and he led Ohno to the bedroom.

“Kazu—” Ohno realised what Nino was going to do. “I’m good, really. You don’t have to. I mean, I don’t need to.”

Nino shut the door and turned on his heel to face Ohno.

“Satoshi-san,” Nino began, deciding to temper the unfamiliarity of the address with a suffix, “take off your pants and get on the bed.”

Ohno immediately did as he was told.

For the next fifteen minutes Nino made good use of his hands, which Ohno praised as ‘very clever’; and also his hips, which Ohno pointed out were equally endowed.

When they were done they lay side by side on the bed, and Nino listened as Ohno’s breathing regulated.

Ohno turned to Nino and draped his limbs over him. Their eyes met, and Ohno communicated an intense longing, an emotion of love Nino had never encountered before.

Ohno touched the back of his fingers against Nino’s cheek.

“I want to grow old with you.”

Nino stilled.

Ohno wrinkled his nose. “Sorry. I understand; it’s only been, what, _weeks_ since we got together…”

“It’s not that.” Nino reached his arms out, claiming affection; Ohno pulled him closer, locking him into his embrace.

They stayed like that for several moments, when Nino finally said:

“I’ve never hoped for an epic, once-in-a-lifetime kind of romance. Instead I’ve always wanted to be _normal_ , to experience the joys and endure the pain everyone does when they fall in love, but because of my powers, I’ve never been able to. I’ve always been one step ahead, and it sort of fucked me up when it came to love and relationships.

“That’s why for most of my life I’ve aspired to be average—being average is like gaining some semblance of control, commanding the parts of my life I can actually take charge of. It was always stability over success, security over adventure, which led to me choosing a career in the civil service, in being a closet Prior; and when it came to interacting with people, it often meant being quiet about my feelings and attitudes, no matter if I knew what the other party was feeling, sometimes even _because_ I knew what others were feeling.

Nino touched his nose to Ohno’s cheek. “But with you, I don’t know if I want to be average. When we first started, I felt so _below_ average; I felt that you were giving so much and I, so little.

“Now, it’s more like I don’t ever want to be enough for you. I want to be more than enough, because you deserve more than just adequacy. You deserve the epic.”

Nino could hear his voice faltering. “I don’t know if I have it in me to give you that.”

Ohno gave a frown, and Nino didn’t need to read him to know he was puzzled.

“But you _have_ ,” said Ohno, “in ways of heart-reading, of accompanying me through time, of cute dogs, of lazy days. Take a measure of my contentment,” he pressed their foreheads together, “and tell me it isn’t epic.”

Nino was too moved to speak. He had no idea Ohno was capable of such prose. From day one Ohno had been surprising him, and only in the best of ways.

“I’ve noticed—well both Aiba-chan and I, actually—that when you think about stuff, you go really deep, so when one doubt vanishes you uncover another, and this entire process is bottled up tightly inside of you,” Ohno chuckled as Nino’s expression admitted everything he was saying to be true, “and I don’t know if it’s because of your ability that you’re this way, but you end up missing the good, intrinsic things about yourself.”

“…You talk to Aiba-chan about me?”

“Don’t get upset—it’s because we love you.”

“I’m not upset, just surprised.”

Their eyes met once more as Nino tipped his head back to look at Ohno. He sighed.

“I see where you’re coming from, but I have _issues_. I hold back because I get scared. I don’t feel confident that I can keep on giving, because I never have before. Do you get what I’m saying? I don’t trust myself to see things through.”

“Then trust me.” Ohno took Nino’s hand and placed it over his heart. “Read me, anytime you want. Remind yourself that I feel this way because of you. It's only fair: if I get to travel back in time to watch us, you get to see what I’m feeling. Right?”

There was so much conviction in Ohno, so much wisdom, that all Nino could do was to give a tiny nod.

“We have time, Kazu, and I know time. It’s not as impatient as we think it is. You may not feel confident now, you may not feel it tomorrow, but you will, sometime this lifetime,” said Ohno softly, “as you spend it with me.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A glimpse into the future.

In spring, Watanabe-sensei extended her maternity leave for another year, which meant Ohno got his contract with Kujukuri Junior High renewed, and this both delighted and stressed Nino, because he’d been making plans to ask Ohno to move in together with him once Ohno left the school, and now he didn’t have the benefit of discretion to strengthen his case—them continuing to work together meant someone in the administration was bound to notice if their addresses were the same.

The surprise came when Nino was called into the principal’s office and informed that he was to be transferred to Ooami Junior High. This was great news for his personal life—he could propose living together to Ohno as planned—but it was painful thinking about saying goodbye to his homeroom class, and the baseball team; and then there was Sho.

“Noooo,” Sho wailed, when Nino told him the news in the music room. “Who’s going to crack jokes during grade meetings?”

“ _You’re_ pretty funny.”

“Not the way you are,” retorted Sho.

“Aw, Sho-chan, you’re adorable.”

Sho sighed. “I expect you’ll be driving to Ooami from Kujukuri every day?”

“Yeah. I’m not looking forward to it; it just takes thirty minutes, but right now all I need is a fifteen-minute walk, and—” Nino snapped his fingers, “—I’m at work.”

“I can see how that sucks.”

There came a knock on the door, and it was Ohno, dropping by to see how Sho was taking the news.

“Not very well,” said Sho glumly, pointing to Nino. “I really liked this one.”

“I understand, but you’re dating his best friend,” whispered Ohno, even though nobody but the three of them were around, “you technically can see Nino whenever you want.”

“Or you could ask Jun-kun to host more parties—I find free food hard to turn down,” said Nino helpfully, and they all laughed.

The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch, and Ohno and Nino left the music room, crossing the hall to the art room to pick up some of Ohno’s things.

“Tsun,” Nino started, and Ohno automatically checked the vicinity for passersby when he heard Nino use that name, “now that I’m going to be working at another school, I was hoping…”

Nino hadn’t meant to stall; it was just that his heart had suddenly leapt into his throat, signalling that he needed time to gather his courage. 

Ohno waited patiently.

Steeling himself, Nino tried again.

“I’ve been thinking about us moving in together, and before we talk about the nitty-gritty of living arrangements, I’d just like to know whether you’re warm to the idea?” said Nino, choosing his words carefully, giving Ohno a tentative smile as he picked up several forms of surprise: Ohno hadn’t seen this coming.

There was the patter of feet, and they watched as Sho’s fifth period class stampeded into the corridor, excited for their very last music lesson of the year. Ohno beckoned Nino into the art supplies closet for some privacy, though he refrained from shutting the door because that would look even more surreptitious.

“The short answer is: yes,” said Ohno, the moment they faced each other.

Nino perked up. “Yeah?”

“Would I say no?” Ohno rubbed Nino’s cheek with his knuckles. “Go ahead, read me and tell me how I feel right now.”

Careful not to hit anything on the shelves, Nino did a silly little dance, making Ohno laugh.

“Pretty accurate, yeah,” said Ohno approvingly.

“Let’s talk about this tonight,” suggested Nino. “Come over, I’ll get Chinese takeout.”

Ohno nodded, breaking into a goofy smile. “I’ll see you at seven-thirty.”

“Sure.”

They headed out of the art room, back to being Ninomiya-sensei and Ohno-sensei again.

“I’m going to the library,” said Nino, making for the stairs, waving to Ohno.

“Teachers’ space,” said Ohno, pointing in the direction of the admin block. He was still grinning. “See you later.”

Nino bounded down the stairs, humming a tune. He thought about how far they’d come ever since the day he’d lamented to Aiba in his car, dumping his head on the dashboard and trying to come to terms with his feelings.

Maybe, if he ever had the guts, he’d ask Ohno to bring them to that time, just so Ohno could see when Nino really started falling for him.

Maybe he’d ask Ohno to take them that evening. Or the next day, since it was a Friday.

Then again, it didn’t really matter when, since they’d promised each other a forever.

There was time.

**fin.**

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Never enough](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9078016) by [oviparous](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oviparous/pseuds/oviparous)




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